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diff --git a/44085-0.txt b/44085-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4b624e0 --- /dev/null +++ b/44085-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3935 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44085 *** + +PSYCHOANALYSIS SLEEP and DREAMS + + + + +PSYCHOANALYSIS AND BEHAVIOR + +BY ANDRÉ TRIDON + + +"Tridon applies the psychoanalytical doctrine to a number of everyday +problems, a business that ought to be undertaken on a far more extensive +scale. His chapters on the psychology of war hysteria and of comstockery +are acute and constructive."--_H. L. Mencken._ + +"His presentation of psychoanalysis is admirable."--_New York Medical +Journal._ + +_$2.50 net at all booksellers_ + +ALFRED A. KNOPF, PUBLISHER, N.Y. + + + + + PSYCHOANALYSIS SLEEP and DREAMS + + + BY ANDRÉ TRIDON + _Author of "Psychoanalysis, its + History, Theory and Practice" and + "Psychoanalysis and Behavior"_ + + + "Nothing is more genuinely + ourselves than our dreams." + Nietzsche. + + + NEW YORK + ALFRED A. KNOPF + 1921 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY + ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC. + + PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + + + + +FOR ADÈLE LEWISOHN + + + + +I wish to thank Dr. J. W. Brandeis, Dr. N. Philip Norman, and Dr. Gregory +Stragnell, for valuable data and editorial assistance, and Mr. Carl Dreher +who lent himself to many experiments. + + + + +PREFACE + + +St. Augustine was glad that God did not hold him responsible for his +dreams. From which we may infer that his dreams must have been "human, all +too human" and that he experienced a certain feeling of guilt on account +of their nature. + +His attitude is one assumed by many people, laymen and scientists, some of +them concealing it under a general scepticism as to dream interpretation. + +Few people are willing to concede as Nietzsche did, that "nothing is more +genuinely ourselves than our dreams." + +This is why the psychoanalytic pronouncement that dreams are the +fulfilment of wishes meets with so much hostility. + +The man who has a dream of gross sex or ego gratification dislikes to have +others think that the desire for such gross pleasure is a part of his +personality. He very much prefers to have others believe that some +extraneous agent, some whimsical power, such as the devil, forced such +thoughts upon him while the unconsciousness of sleep made him +irresponsible and defenceless. + +This is due in part to the absurd and barbarous idea that it is meet to +inflict punishment for mere thoughts, an idea which is probably as deeply +rooted in ignorant minds in our days as it was in the mind of the Roman +emperor who had a man killed because the poor wretch dreamed of the +ruler's death. + +We must not disclaim the responsibility for our unconscious thoughts as +they reveal themselves through dreams. They are truly a part of our +personality. But our responsibility is merely psychological; we should not +punish people for harbouring in their unconscious the lewd or murderous +cravings which the caveman probably gratified in his daily life; nor +should we be burdened with a sense of sin because we cannot drive out of +our consciousness certain cravings, biologically natural, but socially +unjustifiable. + +The first prerequisite for a normal mental life is the acceptance of all +biological facts. Biology is ignorant of all delicacy. + +The possible presence of broken glass, coupled with the fact that man +lacks hoofs, makes it imperative for man to wear shoes. + +The man who is unconsolable over the fact that his feet are too tender +in their bare state to tread roads, and the man who decides to ignore +broken glass and to walk barefoot, are courting mental and physical +suffering of the most useless type. + +He who accepts the fact that his feet are tender and broken glass +dangerous, and goes forth, shod in the proper footgear, will probably +remain whole, mentally and physically. + +When we realize that our unconscious is ours and ourselves, but not of our +own making, we shall know our limitations and our potentialities and be +free from many fears. + +No better way has been devised for probing the unconscious than the honest +and scientific study of dreams, a study which must be conducted with the +care and the freedom from bias that characterize the chemist's or the +physicist's laboratory experiments. + +Furthermore, dream study and dream study alone, can help us solve a +problem which scientists have generally disregarded or considered as +solved, the tremendous problem of sleep. + +Algebra and Latin, which are of no earthly use to 999/1000 of those +studying them, are a part of the curriculum of almost every high school. +Sleep, in which we spend one-third of our life, is not considered as of +any importance. + +How could we understand sleep unless we understood the phenomena which +take place in sleep: dreams? + +Even Freud, whose research work lifted dream study from the level of +witchcraft to that of an accurate science, seems to have been little +concerned with the enigma of sleep and sleeplessness. + +This book is an attempt at correlating sleep and dreams and at explaining +sleep through dreams. + +Briefly stated, my thesis is that we sleep in order to dream and to be for +a number of hours our simpler and unrepressed selves. Sleeplessness is due +to the fact that, in our fear of incompletely repressed cravings, we do +not dare to become, through the unconsciousness of sleep, our primitive +selves. In nightmares, repressed cravings which seek gratification under a +symbolic cloak, and are therefore unrecognizable, cause us to be tortured +by fear. + +The cure for sleeplessness and nightmares is, accordingly, the acceptance +of biological facts observable in our unconscious and our willingness to +grant, through the unconsciousness of sleep, dream gratification to +conscious and unconscious cravings of a socially objectionable kind which +we must, however, accept as a part of our personality. + +February, 1921. + + 121 Madison Avenue + New York City + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + + I. SLEEP DEFINED 1 + + II. FATIGUE AND REST 11 + + III. THE FLIGHT FROM REALITY 20 + + IV. HYPNOGOGIC AND HYPNOPOMPIC VISIONS 32 + + V. WHERE DREAMS COME FROM 36 + + VI. CONVENIENCE DREAMS 44 + + VII. DREAM LIFE 48 + + VIII. WISH FULFILMENT 58 + + IX. NIGHTMARES 67 + + X. TYPICAL DREAMS AND SLEEP WALKING 75 + + XI. PROPHETIC DREAMS 85 + + XII. ATTITUDES REFLECTED IN DREAMS 92 + + XIII. RECURRENT DREAMS 102 + + XIV. DAY DREAMS 113 + + XV. NEUROSIS AND DREAMS 118 + + XVI. SLEEPLESSNESS 127 + + XVII. DREAM INTERPRETATION 144 + + BIBLIOGRAPHY 158 + + + + +CHAPTER I: SLEEP DEFINED + + +Literary quotations and time-worn stereotypes exert a deplorable influence +on our thinking. They lead us to consider certain open questions as +settled, certain puzzling problems as solved. + +From time immemorial, the unthinking and thinking alike, have accepted the +idea of a kinship between sleep and death. Expressions like "eternal +sleep" show by the frequency with which they recur, how constantly +associated the two ideas are in the average mind. + +Not only is that association absurd but its consequences are regrettable, +at least from one point of view: if sleep is a form of death, the psychic +phenomena connected with it are bound to be misinterpreted and either +granted a dignity they do not deserve or scornfully ignored. + +The superstitious may loose all critical sense and see in sleep and sleep +thinking something mysterious and mystical. The scientist, on the other +hand, may consider such phenomena as beneath his notice. + +No sober appreciation of sleep and dreams can be expected from any one who +associates in any way the idea of sleep and the idea of death. + +Respiration seems to be the essential feature of life, and its lack, the +essential feature of death. As long as respiration takes place, the two +ferments of the body, pepsin and trypsin, break up insoluble food +molecules into soluble acid molecules which are then absorbed by the blood +and carried to the cells of the body where they are utilized to build up +new solid cell matter. + +When respiration ceases, a degree of acidity is reached which enables the +two ferments to digest the body of disintegrating each cell. This is +according to Jacques Loeb the meaning of death. + +No such chemical action is observable in any form of sleep. + +From that point of view, sleep is a form of life. + +Sleep is even a more normal form of life than the average waking states. + +In the normal waking states, the vagotonic nerves of the autonomic system +which upbuild the body and insure the continuance of the race should +dominate the organism, being checked in emergencies only by the +sympathetic nerves which constitute the human safety system. + +The vagotonic nerves contract the pupil, make saliva and gastric juice +flow, slow down the heart beats, decrease the blood pressure, promote +sexual activities, etc. + +The sympathetic nerves on the contrary, dilate the pupil, dry the mouth, +stop the gastric activities, increase the heart beats, raise the blood +pressure, decrease or arrest the sexual activities, etc. + +In peaceful sleep, we observe that the vagotonic functions hold full sway. +In sleep, our pupils are contracted. Even when they have been dilated by +atropine, they become contracted again in sleep. + +In sleep, the digestive organs continue to perform their specific work, +all the popular beliefs to the contrary notwithstanding. Infants and +animals generally go to sleep as soon as they finish feeding. Animals +digest infinitely better if allowed to sleep after being fed, than if +compelled to stay awake, walk or run. + +The activity of the sexual organs is as great in sleep as in waking life; +in certain cases, it is even greater. + +At certain times, during sleep, the pressure of the blood in the brain is +greatly reduced, and certain authors have concluded that sleep was +characterized by brain anaemia, which some of them consider as the cause +of sleep. + +Indeed, unconsciousness can be induced by producing a temporary brain +anaemia, for instance by compressing the carotid arteries of the neck for +a minute or so. Sleepiness almost always appears then and lasts as long +as the pressure is exerted. + +Special manometers show that the fall in the blood pressure invariably +precedes the appearance of sleep. In dogs whose skulls have been trephined +for purposes of observation, the brain can be seen to turn pale as soon as +the animals fall asleep. + +But we have here simply one of the vagotonic activities mentioned +previously. In the normal organism, the blood pressure should be low, +rising only in emergencies, when the organism is facing some danger and +must be prepared for fight or flight. + +And in fact, the slightest light, noise, pain or smell stimulus, is +sufficient to bring the blood back to the brain during sleep. Our +sympathetic nerves are on the watch and even if the subject does not wake +up, they rush the blood whenever it is needed for emergency action, in +this case, to the general switchboard of the organism, the brain. + +But this so-called brain anaemia is not constant during the entire period +of sleep. The pressure falls gradually before sleep sets in and only +reaches its minimum an hour after sleep has begun. Then it increases +gradually and becomes normal again about the usual waking time. We shall +see later that attention follows an identical curve. + +It has been pointed out that in sleep the respiration becomes slower and +that the amount of air inspired and consequently of oxygen assimilated is +lowered. But inaction in the waking states will show exactly the same +results. + +A smaller quantity of carbonic acid is eliminated in sleep, the decrease +being about sixteen per cent. But that condition is not due to sleep. It +is due to many other factors such as the absence of light, etc. + +The nature of the food taken before retiring has also a notable influence +on the quantity of carbonic acid eliminated by the sleeper; the quantity +varies from seventy five per cent after a meat supper to ninety per cent +after a diet of starches. + +The sweat glands of the skin secrete more actively in sleep than in waking +life, which is also a vagotonic symptom and is also due to the fact that +the sweat centre is easily affected by carbonic acid. + +This increase in the activity of the skin accounts for the decrease we +notice in the activity of the kidneys. (More urine is produced on cold +days when the perspiration is scanty than on hot summer days.) + +The lowering of the temperature in sleep is simply a result of inactivity, +not of sleep. + +We know that many pains, especially neuralgias, disappear in sleep. Many +of those ailments, however, are of a neurotic origin and constitute a +form of escape from reality. When reality has been practically abolished +by unconsciousness, they are no longer "needed." + +Experiments made on instructors of the University of Iowa who were kept +awake for ninety hours showed that the weight of the subjects increased +during the experiments, decreasing later when the subjects were allowed to +resume their natural life and to sleep. The increase was solely due to the +fact that during the experiments, the subjects were relieved of their +duties, remained idle in the psychological laboratory and hence consumed +less organic matter than if they had led an active life, preparing their +courses and teaching several hours a day. + +It has been stated many times that a form of motor paralysis sets in +during sleep. Yet we all know of the many motions performed by every +sleeper, turning from side to side, drawing or pushing away the bed +clothes, removing stimuli applied to the face, talking, not to mention, of +course, sleep walking. + +Sleep does not even mean complete muscular relaxation, for sentinels have +been observed who could sleep standing; some people sleep sitting up in +their chairs. Many animals, birds, bats, horses, sleep in positions which +make muscular relaxation impossible; when their balance is disturbed by +an observer, they re-establish it without awaking. Sleeping ducks keep on +paddling in circles to avoid drifting against dangerous shores, etc. + +In other words, there is not a part of our body which ceases in sleep to +perform its specific work. Our lungs continue to breathe, our heart to +send blood to all parts of the body, our glands secrete various chemicals; +we hear, smell and to a certain extent, see. The lowering of our eyelids +is simply a half-conscious effort to remove sight stimuli. Our nails and +hair continue to grow, although, for that matter, they do so for some time +even after death. + +Finally our mental activity does not cease during sleep. Wake up a sleeper +at any time and he will awaken _from a dream_. He may not be able to tell +that dream but he will know for sure that, not only was he dreaming, but +had been dreaming for a long while before awaking. + +Wherein, then, does sleep differ from waking life? + +Solely in the form of our mental activities. + +Sleep is not as Manacéine, the author of the most complete book on sleep, +stated: the resting time of consciousness. We do not withdraw our +attention completely from the environment in sleep. + +When we make up our minds, for instance, to wake up at a certain time, we +seldom fail to carry out our purpose. Which does not mean that we are +suddenly aroused out of our unconsciousness by something within ourselves, +but more probably that our attention has been concentrated all night on +certain stimuli indicating time, distant chimes, activities taking place +at a definite hour, and which we had noticed unconsciously, although they +may have escaped our conscious attention. It has even been suggested that +as respiration and pulse are more or less constant in rest, they are used +by the organism as unconscious time-registers. This is possibly one of the +phenomena due to the activity of the pituitary body in which may reside +the "sense of time" and which controls all the rhythms of the body. + +Jouffroy, Manacéine and Kempf have remarked that nursing mothers may sleep +soundly in spite of the disturbances which take place about them, but that +the slightest motion of their infant will awaken them. Many nurses not +only can wake up at regular intervals to administer a drug to their +patients, but, besides, can be aroused out of a sound sleep by a change in +the patient's breathing foreboding some danger. + +Our withdrawal of attention from reality follows the same curve as that +followed by the withdrawal of blood from the brain. + +Many experiments have been made to determine that curve and to sound the +depth of sleep. In one case a metallic ball was allowed to fall from +varying heights until the noise awakened the sleeper; in another case +electric currents of varying voltage were used to stimulate the subject, +etc. All experiments have yielded the same results: Sleep reaches its +lowest depth during the first two or three hours, _the average time being +shorter during the day than at night_. In the majority of subjects, the +greatest depth is reached about the end of the first hour. After the third +hour, sleep is easily disturbed, the more so as the usual awakening time +approaches. + +To conclude, we will say that sleep partakes of all the characteristics of +normal life, the only essential difference we can establish scientifically +being a greater withdrawal of attention from reality in normal sleep than +in normal waking life. + +We insist on using the terms _normal waking life_, for there are forms of +abnormal waking life in which attention is withdrawn as completely from +reality as it is in normal sleep. + +In the disease designated by psychiatrists as _dementia praecox_, the +patient may become entirely negative, some time regressing to the level +of the unborn child, and withdraw even more entirely from reality than the +sleeper who, without awaking, is conscious of certain stimuli and performs +certain actions showing a comprehension of their nature. + + + + +CHAPTER II: FATIGUE AND REST + + +What causes sleep? What causes us to withdraw partly our attention from +our environment? The answer: brain anaemia, is unsatisfactory for we may +ask in turn: what causes brain anaemia? + +A study of brain anaemia leads one to conclude that it coincides with the +usual sleeping period and that it is produced by sleep instead of +producing sleep. + +The large majority of laymen and scientists, however, give a much simpler +answer: we go to sleep because we are tired and need rest. + +Even as sleep and death have been coupled in the literature of all +nations, fatigue and sleepiness, rest and sleep have come to be generally +considered as synonymous. + +Fatigue, however, is as difficult to define scientifically as sleep. +Drawing a line between physical fatigue and mental fatigue does not +simplify the problem; on the contrary, it complicates it by positing it +wrongly. + +We know that there is no purely physical fatigue. Fatigue is only caused +in a very restricted measure by the accumulation of "fatigue" products or +the depletion of repair stocks. + +Under certain "mental" influences, our muscles can perform much more than +their usual "stint" without showing fatigue. Hypnotize a man and he will +do things he could not attempt in the waking state. He can lie rigid, +reposing on nothing but his neck and heels; he can even support in that +position the weight of a full-sized man. Men on the march can show +wonderful endurance provided their "spirits" are kept up by some form of +cheer, band music, etc. Ergograph observations show that signs of muscular +fatigue appear and disappear without any obvious "physical" reason. +Standardized motions which have been made almost automatic, tire us less +than conscious activity. + +We shall not deny that in certain cases fatigue may appear purely +"physical." When a continued expenditure of energy, walking, carrying +heavy burdens, has induced muscular soreness, the organism must cease +exerting itself for a while and recuperate. + +But relatively few people perform physical activities which actually wear +out the organism. + +Even then, if that form of exhaustion was conducive to sleep, the more +complete the exhaustion was, the deeper the sleep should be. + +Yet we know that people can be "too tired to sleep." + +This is easily explained through a consideration of a phenomenon known as +the "second wind" and which, before Cannon's observations on the chemistry +of the emotions, was rather mysterious. + +Athletes competing on the running track are often seen to falter and fall +back, apparently exhausted; after which, they suddenly seem to breathe +more freely, they overcome their limpness and start out on a fresh spurt +which may cause them to head off steadier runners. + +What happens in such a case is this: great physical exertion causes a form +of asphyxiation. Asphyxiation and the concomitant fear, liberate adrenin +which restores the tone of tired muscles and also glycogen (sugar) which +supplies the body with new fuel. + +If the exertion continues long enough to use up all these emergency +chemicals, the muscular relaxation necessary for sleep may be obtained. +Otherwise, the organism prepared for a struggle with reality, will not +lend itself to a flight from it. Although we are "worn out" we toss about +in our bed, try all possible sleeping positions and only sleep when the +energy which was supplied for a long struggle has been entirely burnt up. + +The majority of people, after all, busy themselves with tasks which do not +really deplete their stores of energy, but which prove monotonous. That +monotony is then interpreted as fatigue. + +In such cases, rest seems to be more easily attained through a change of +activity than through mere cessation of activity. + +A business man has been closeted in his office attending to many tedious +details, reading letters and answering them, etc., and by five o'clock he +feels "tired." He will then go home, change his day suit for evening wear, +attend a dinner at which he will do perhaps much talking, then watch +actors for three hours and feel "rested." + +Or at the end of a "heavy" week, he will gather up his golf outfit and +walk miles in the wake of a rubber ball. He returns to his work "rested," +although he has only exchanged one form of activity for other forms of +activity. Of actual "rest" he has had none. + +Children "tired" of sitting in a class room will romp wildly, shout at the +tops of their lungs, jostle and fight one another and return to meet their +teacher "rested." + +Undirected activity in the young, pleasurable activity in the adult do not +seem to make rest necessary, and in fact are a form of "rest." + +Egotistical gratification easily takes the place of rest. Heads of large +businesses have sometimes mentioned to me that they worked much harder +than some of their employés. Some of them kept on revolving commercial +schemes in their heads or attending business meetings long after their +office workers had left. "And yet," they added, "we are not complaining +about being tired." Nor were they as tired, after fifteen hours of "free +labor" as their employés were after six or eight hours of routine work +allowing them very little initiative and independence of action. + +Edison works eighteen hours a day and only "rests" through sleep some four +hours out of the twenty four. I wager that if he were put at work in his +own plant, under the direction of a foreman, performing regular, +monotonous tasks, he would break down under the strain of such long hours +and would have to "rest" twice as much as he does now. His work satisfies +him, and every new detail he perfects, every novelty he initiates, +vouchsafes him a powerful ego gratification. + +Napoleon, too, could perform incredible feats of muscular activity and +endurance after which four hours' sleep were sufficient to rest him. His +life was for many years a continuous round of ego gratifications, won at +the cost of great exertions, it is true, but proclaiming to him and the +world his almost unrestricted power and luck. + +One is forced to the conclusion that a desire for rest is a desire, not +for decreased activity but for increased activity. + +I shall make this point clear through a simile. The manufacturer who +"attends to business" must, in order to succeed, "concentrate" on a few +subjects and exclude all others from his mind. He may for a few hours +think of nothing but, let us say, a certain grade of woollens, certain +machinery, a certain customer and perhaps a certain engineer and some +financial problem connected with those four thoughts. He must therefore +exclude from his mind at the time, thoughts of playing golf, buying new +clothes, going to the theatre, renting an apartment, repairing his motor +car, thoughts of meals, women, card playing, and many other thoughts which +are clamouring for admission to consciousness because they all represent +human cravings. + +In his relaxed moments he will let all those other thoughts come to the +surface. Which means that, what tired him, was the fact that he had to +keep all those subjects down and allow only the other four to rise to +consciousness. + +Mental rest consists in admitting ideas pell mell into consciousness +without exercising any censorship on them. It consists in passing from a +reduced but directed mental activity to an increased but undirected mental +activity. + +In other words, rest is the free, normal, unimpeded functioning of the +vagotonic nerves which upbuild the body and assure the continuance of the +race. Ego and sex activities, mental and physical, are constantly +struggling for admission to consciousness and for their gratification. +They are held down, however, by the sympathetic nerves which play the part +of a safety device, moderating or inhibiting the vagotonic activities +whenever the latter might endanger the personality. + +Physical and mental rest, however, being easily attained through a change +of activities, cannot be entirely synonymous with sleep. Sleep takes place +mainly while we are resting, although we know of cases when sleep sets in +regardless of continued muscular activity, but sleep is not exactly +"rest." We do not sleep because we need rest. In many cases we can or +could rest very well, although in such cases sleep is an impossibility. + +What then induces sleep? The certainty that we can for a time relax our +watch on our environment; a feeling of perfect safety; the conscious or +unconscious knowledge that no danger threatens us. + +Our receptive contact with reality is attained through the action of our +vagotonic nerves which, as stated before, upbuild the body and assure the +continuance of the race. Our defensive contact, on the other hand is +attained through our sympathetic nerves which interrupt all the activities +which are not necessary for fight or flight. As long as some stimulus is +interpreted by those nerves as indicating a possible danger, we cannot +sleep, although we may, under the influence of terrifying fear, fall into +unconsciousness. + +A light flashed on our closed lids at night causes us to wake up because +sympathetic activities bid us to prepare for an emergency. A light burning +evenly in our bedroom and not too bright to cause physical pain, will, on +the other hand, allow us to sleep soundly because the constant character +of the stimulus does not cause us to expect any danger therefrom. + +A mouse rustling a bit of paper will wake us up, but trains passing in +front of our window at regular intervals, or the constant rumble of a +neighbouring power house will not prove a disturbance as soon as our +nerves have learnt to interpret those stimuli as harmless. + +Conversation with a dull, witless person, unlikely to best us in debate, +puts us to sleep. Argument with keen, sharp-minded people, who keep us on +the defensive, may lead to sleeplessness for the rest of the night. A dull +book in which nothing happens or is expected to happen, acts as a +soporific; we cannot close our eyes before we know the dénouement of a +thrilling piece of fiction. + +In other words, monotony transforms itself into a symbol of safety. Safety +does not require the muscular tension, the blood stream speed which the +organism needs in order to cope with possible emergencies. We "let go" and +no longer pay any close attention to our environment. We sleep. + + + + +CHAPTER III: THE FLIGHT FROM REALITY + + +Monotony symbolizing safety _enables_ us to withdraw our attention from +our environment, from a reality which we no longer fear, but it does not +_compel_ us to do so. There is in sleep a certain amount of compulsion +which is not accounted for by the mere monotony of environmental stimuli. +We go to sleep willingly but not entirely of our own free will. We yield +to sleep. + +A consideration of abnormal sleep states will help us considerably in +determining the actual cause of sleep. + +Abnormal states always throw a flood of light on normal states of which +they are only an exaggerated variety. The neurosis is the best magnifying +glass through which to watch normal life, provided of course that we +afterward reduce our observations to the proper scale. + +The average person sleeps from six to ten hours out of the twenty four, +some time between eight at night and ten in the morning. In abnormal +cases, on the other hand, we see the duration of sleep considerably +prolonged and the onset of sleepiness appearing at times when complete +wakefulness is usually the rule. + +The circumstances surrounding those abnormal cases are never pleasant. We +never hear of any one falling asleep while witnessing a very amusing play, +while in the company of a very interesting person or while busy with some +extremely attractive occupation. + +One incident from Napoleon's biography will make my meaning clear. During +his days of glory Napoleon never slept more than four or five hours out of +the twenty four. His physical and intellectual activities were prodigious. +He would, at times, ride on horseback for ten hours at a stretch, then +hold conferences with his staff until late into the night, then dictate +innumerable letters. Yet he did not feel tired or sleepy and a few hours +of sleep were sufficient to "relieve his fatigue." + +On the other hand, let us remember what happened after the battle of +Aspern, the first he lost after a series of seventeen victories: He fell +asleep after a long, unsuccessful struggle with drowsiness and for +thirty-six hours could not be aroused. + +His biographers also mention that when his life dream was shattered at +Waterloo and he was sent into exile on a remote island, he began to sleep +as many hours as the average, normal man. + +After Aspern and after Waterloo, reality had become such, that an escape +from it, via the unconsciousness of sleep, must have been welcome. That +the reaction of defeat must have been more keenly felt by the young man +who lost Aspern and who presented strong neurotic traits, than by the more +settled man who lost Waterloo, can be easily understood. + +Nansen in his Polar exile slept twenty hours a day. He certainly was not +in need of rest or recuperation, for his idleness was complete, but the +reality of ice and snow which kept him a prisoner, was one from which he +was glad to withdraw his attention. + +I personally observed two cases in which sudden fits of sleepiness could +be interpreted as an escape from reality. + +A gambler could go for several days and nights without sleep, _provided he +was winning_. After a heavy loss or a period during which his earnings +were offset by his losses, he would go to bed and sleep as much as four +days and four nights at a time, arising once or twice a day to partake of +some food and returning at once to his slumbers. + +A neurotic with a strong inferiority complex was overwhelmed by +sleepiness every time he encountered a defeat of a sexual or egotistic +nature. After a quarrel, or whenever a discussion in which he took part +turned to his disadvantage, he had to lie down and "sleep it off." + +This is probably the key to the enigma of Casper Hauser's case. He was +born in Germany at the beginning of the last century and brought up in +complete solitude, in a small dark room. At the age of seventeen, he had +never seen men, animals or plants, the sun, moon or stars. He then was +taken out of his cell, and abandoned on the streets of Nuremberg, dazed +and helpless. + +All the efforts made by kind Samaritans to develop his mentality proved +futile. They had only one result: to make him fall asleep. Accustomed for +years to the peace, quiet and safety of his cell, he reacted to a new, +troublesome and complicated environment as newly born infants do, who in +incredibly long periods of sleep, in no wise explainable through fatigue, +escape reality and return to the perfect happiness of the fetal state. + +In certain forms of the disturbance known as sleeping sickness, people +merge into a sleep which continues for weeks, months or even years, and +which sometimes culminates in death. (In many cases, however, the +sleepiness may be totally lacking.) + +The sleeping sickness was first observed some hundred years ago on the +West Coast of Africa and, since then, in an area of the African continent +extending from Senegal to the Congo. Negroes are almost the only +sufferers, although a few whites have been affected by this disease which, +at times, extends to large numbers of the population. + +According to various medical observers, the sleeping sickness usually +appears among slaves doing _arduous, exhausting work_. + +It is the individuals who stand lowest in intelligence who are most +severely affected. In communities where the mental development has been +retarded, imitation easily spreads the contagion and this is probably the +reason why entire villages are decimated by that curious malady. + +Whether the sleeping sickness is in certain cases induced by the bite of a +fly or appears without obvious physical cause is immaterial.[1] Paranoia +induced by syphilis is in no way different from ordinary paranoia. + +Hence we are justified in linking together certain aspects of the African +sleeping sickness and the lethargic ailment which affects the white races +in Europe and America. + +Both have the appearance of normal sleep, the only striking difference, +barring certain physical syndromes, being the unusual length of the +sleeping period or its onset at unusual and unexpected times. + +In white subjects, narcolepsy is seldom fatal but has been known to last +for years. + +The most famous case on record is probably that of Karoline Ollson +reported in a Salpétrière publication for 1912. + +Karoline Ollson was born in 1861 in a small town of Sweden. At the age of +14, at the onset of her menstruation, she once came home complaining of +toothache, went to bed and remained bedridden till 1908. For thirty-two +years she slept all day and all night, waking up now and then for a few +minutes, taking dim notice of happenings in her environment and speaking a +few words. Two glasses of milk a day seemed to be sufficient to sustain +her. She was kept for a fortnight in a hospital from which she was +discharged when her ailment was diagnosed as "hysteria." + +When her mother died in 1905 she woke up and wept as long as the corpse +remained in the house. Then she became quiet again and resumed her +slumbers. In April, 1908, when her menstruation stopped, she woke up, left +her bed and has led a normal life since. + +Dr. Toedenström who describes the case states that she looked incredibly +young. Two weeks after she left her bed she had become strong enough to +take charge of the household. + +Stekel, discussing this strange case in one of his lectures, said: "This +woman spent the entire time of her womanhood in sleep, for she fell asleep +at the time of her first menstruation period and her awakening coincided +with her climacteric. She was a child and wished to remain a child. The +first question she asked on arising, 'Where is mama?' shows that she was +suffering from psychic infantilism. It is probable that dreams of +childhood filled her thirty-year sleep and she may even have dreamt that +she was still an unborn child for whom life had not yet begun." + +Medical literature contains many reports of freakish cases in which the +subject falls asleep suddenly, while attending to duties of an +uninteresting character; a young waiter, for instance, falling asleep +while waiting on a table, remaining absolutely motionless for a whole +minute and then waking up and resuming his work. Manacéine mentions two +similar cases she observed personally. Both patients were illiterate and +of slow intellect. One of them, a housemaid of nineteen, was a sound +sleeper at night and yet, in the day time, one could never be sure of her +remaining awake. She fell asleep once in the act of announcing a visitor +and while bringing in a tray loaded with cups of coffee. The other was a +woman of fifty, who was employed as a nurse until one day, falling asleep +suddenly, she dropped an infant on the floor and almost killed him. In +both the pulse was remarkably slow (a vagotonic symptom): in the girl it +varied from 50 to 70 when awake, in the older woman from 40 to 60. + +An epidemic of sleeping fits, lasting only a few minutes at a time, raged +for several years in a small German town near Würzburg. The attacks took +place at any moment and were liable to leave the patient immobilized in +some curious position. It was the weaker part of the population, +physically and mentally, which was affected by that curious trouble, +apparently transmitted from parents to children, probably, as all neurotic +complaints are, through imitation. + +Stekel considers hysterical and epileptic fits as forms of morbid sleep +during which hysterics gratify sexual cravings and epileptics sadistic +cravings. + +This is how Dr. Isador Abrahamson describes, from recent cases observed at +Mount Sinai Hospital, the course of lethargic encephalitis which is one of +the scientific names coined to designate the sleeping sickness: + +"At the onset of the disease, there is a period of variable duration in +which the patient experiences increasing difficulty in attending to his +work. Next a time of yawning ensues, in which there may be also the +_irritability of the overtired_. Then the eyes close, _chiefly from lack +of interest_.... (The patient's) pulse, temperature, and respiration may +all be of a normal character.... From the depth of this seeming slumber, +he may respond immediately when questioned and his _short but coherent +answers_ show _no loss either of memory or of orientation_.... His answer +given, he straightway resumes his seeming sleep.... _His attitude +expresses a desire to be let alone_, a desire which is sometimes +articulate in him.... The somnolence may deepen into a stupor from which +the patient is not easily aroused to conscious repose.... In the night +watches ... a restless delirium of inconstant severity often appears. +Spontaneous movements and sounds are made. The movements are purposeful +graspings and pointings at unseen things, tossings and turnings...." + +The author adds in another part of his article that "The depth of the +somnolence and also its duration are unrelated to the severity of the +cerebral lesions.... _The extent of the mental disturbance bears no +correspondence to the extent of the lesions_, the amount of fever or the +blood picture...." [Italics mine.] + +We have a perfect picture of a flight from reality into a somnolence into +which the unconscious complexes force at times a terrifying presentation +of the dreaded reality through nightmares. + +The few cases of sleeping sickness reported in recent medical literature +show a decided neurotic trend in the subjects affected and reveal +circumstances in the patient's life which would make a flight from reality +highly desirable. + +One typical case reported to me by a Boston physician who personally +considers the sleeping sickness as being "unquestionably an acute organic +disease of the cerebro-spinal system" has all the earmarks of a neurotic +affection: + +"The patient, a middle aged woman lost a child she loved dearly one year +and a half before the onset of the disease. The circumstances of the +child's death were particularly sad as the mother was not allowed to visit +the little sufferer at the hospital on account of the contagious character +of his disease. She also felt disturbing doubts as to the competence of +the first physician who attended her child. + +"She had been 'nervous and run down' since the child's death. She is +married to a cripple twenty years her senior. She had to go to work in +order to help support the household and to live with relatives of her +husband's who did not contribute to the pleasantness of her home life." + +Have we not here all the environmental conditions which would drive a +neurotic to withdraw his attention from reality through a protracted +period of sleep? + +From the fact that I have instituted a comparison between sleep and the +sleeping sickness, the reader should not draw the conclusion that I +attribute to sleep any neurotic character. + +Sleep is a compromise, as I shall show later, when discussing dream life, +between what the human animal was meant to do and what it can do in +reality. + +The neurosis, also is a compromise, but it is a compromise that fails, +while sleep is a compromise which is successful, beneficial and acceptable +to all. + + + + +CHAPTER IV: HYPNOGOGIC AND HYPNOPOMPIC VISIONS + + +The curve of sleep depth shows that our withdrawal from reality is not +sudden but gradual. The transition from wakefulness to sleep is +characterized at first by blurred visions, colours, shapes, moving objects +with a scarcely defined outline, and immediately after by curiously +symbolical visions, known as hypnogogic visions. + +Those phenomena are difficult to study for they are forgotten by the end +of the night. The observer has to train himself to wake up after a few +minutes of unconsciousness, a result which is achieved without difficulty +after a few trials. + +The first visions of the night are in every subject I have asked and in +myself, symbolical of the passage from one state to another. One +hypnogogic vision I have had many times is of wading slowly into a lake or +the sea, until the water reaches to the middle of my body after which I +start swimming.[2] + +One night when I had a little difficulty in falling asleep my hypnogogic +vision represented a truckman looking like myself whipping a team of +horses hitched to a big load who were crossing a very high bridge leading +from the city into the open. + +Another night, after seeing the "Follies," I dreamt that the police was +trying vainly to quell a disturbance and that the rioters succeeded in +placing their own police in charge of the disturbance. The newcomers were +attired like the front row girls of the Follies. No more symbolical +picture of the whole nervous situation could be found. The day's +repressions being gradually replaced by the "follies" of dreamland. + +Not only is the passage from reality into dreamland thus symbolized by +appropriate representation but the mental work of reality gradually merges +with the mental work of the sleeping state. + +Thoughts of the day merge directly with the dream thoughts. There is no +gap between waking thoughts and sleeping thoughts. This has been +demonstrated by Silberer's experiments. + +"The very first dream," Silberer says, "visualizes, dramatises and +interprets the very last waking thought." + +1st EXAMPLE: "I applied some boric ointment to the mucous of my nose +before retiring to relieve a painful dryness." + +DREAM: "I see some one offering money to some one else. Only I notice that +it is my right hand which is putting money into my left hand." + +INTERPRETATION: "I have often thought that this medication did not help my +nose trouble but simply concealed it. The action is therefore presented as +illusory help." + +2nd EXAMPLE: "I am thinking of a dramatic scene in which a character would +intimate a certain fact to another character without putting the thought +into words." + +DREAM: "One man is offering to another man a hot metallic cup." + +INTERPRETATION: "The cup transmits an impression of heat which has not to +be expressed through spoken words." + +3rd EXAMPLE: "I try to remember something which in my sleepy state eludes +me." + +DREAM: "I apply for information to a grouchy clerk who refuses to impart +it to me. The interpretation is obvious." + +4th EXAMPLE: "I think that many simple arguments could be brought forth to +prove some thesis of mine." + +DREAM: "A drove of white horses moves downward through my field of vision. +Interpretation obvious." + +Likewise sleeping thoughts gradually merge with waking thoughts in the +moments preceding awakening. + +The last dreams of the night or hypnopompic visions generally dramatize +our awakening in picturesque, symbolical fashion. + +Here are several examples collected by Silberer from observations on +himself: + +"I return to my home with a party of people, take leave of them at the +door and enter." + +"After visiting some place, I drive home along the same road which lead me +there." + +"One morning I woke up and decided to doze off for another half hour: I +dreamt then that I was locked up in a house and I woke up saying: 'I must +have the lock broken open.'" + +In hypnopompic visions we generally enter a house, a forest, a dark valley +or take a train or a boat, or we fall (see typical dreams). + + + + +CHAPTER V: WHERE DREAMS COME FROM + + +To sleep does not mean "perchance to dream," but to dream from the very +second when we close our eyes to the time when we open them again. + +"But I never dream," some one will surely say. + +To which I will answer: Make experiments on yourself or some one else. +Have some one wake you up fifty times or a hundred times in one night. +Repeat the experiment as many nights as your constitution will allow and +every time you wake up, you will wake up with the clear or confused memory +of some dream. + +Most people forget their dreams as they forget their waking thoughts. +Unless some very striking idea came to my mind yesterday afternoon, I am +likely to be embarrassed if some one asks me: "What were you thinking of +yesterday afternoon?" + +We shall see in another chapter that our dream thoughts are not in any way +different from our waking thoughts, and that unless they have a special +meaning there is no reason why they should obsess us more than our waking +thoughts do. + +In fact, a remembered dream is as important as an obsessive idea and has +the same meaning. Thousands of futile dreams dreamt in one night may not +leave a deeper impression on our "mind" than thousands of futile thoughts +which flit through our consciousness in one day. + +Before considering the origin of dreams I must restate briefly a +proposition which I have discussed at length in _Psychoanalysis and +Behaviour_, the indivisibility of the human organism. + +The words physical and mental are lacking in any real meaning and there is +no physical manifestation which it not inseparably linked with some +psychic phenomenon. Emotions, secretions and attitudes may be studied +separately for the sake of convenience, but in reality there cannot be any +emotion which is not unavoidably accompanied by a secretion and betrayed +by some attitude, nor can there be any attitude which is not accompanied +by a secretion and interpreted by some emotion. + +This must be constantly borne in mind when we attempt to answer the +question: Where do dreams come from? + +If dreams "come from the stomach" why should distressed minds seek refuge +in them? If they are purely psychic phenomena, what relief can they afford +to our dissatisfied body? + +We shall not deny that a full bladder may at times induce urination +dreams, that a full stomach may at times conjure up anxiety visions in +which heavy masses oppress us, or that long continence and the consequent +accumulation of sexual products may be at times responsible for sexual +dreams. + +What the physical theory of dreams, most scientifically and +conscientiously expounded by the Scandinavian Mourly Vold, will not +explain, however, is that, in one subject, a urination dream may be a +pleasurable visualization of relief, leading to continued sleep and, in +another, an anxiety episode, picturing frustrated gratification and ending +in an unpleasant awakening. A heavy dinner may people one sleeper's +visions with large animals treading his stomach, and cause another to +dream of vomiting fits which relieve the pressure of food. + +In one sleeper, sexual desire evokes libidinous visions, in another, +terrifying scenes of violence. + +On the other hand, the very close relation observed in thousands of cases +between the sleeper's dreams and his physical condition, invalidates any +theory which would revert more or less literally to the belief held in +ancient times that dreams were purely psychic phenomena, visions sent by +the gods. + +Maury whose book, "Sleep and Dreams," published in 1865, was probably the +first serious attempt at deciphering the enigma of dream thoughts, had +various experiments performed on himself to determine what dreams would be +brought forth by physical stimuli. + +He was tickled with a feather on the lips and nostrils. He dreamt that a +mask of pitch was applied to his face and then pulled off, tearing the +skin. + +A pair of tweezers was held close to his ear and struck with a metallic +object. He heard the tolling of bells and thought of the revolutionary +days of 1848. + +A bottle of perfume was held to his nose. He dreamt of the East and of a +trip to Egypt. + +A lighted match was held close to his nostrils. He dreamt that he was on a +ship whose magazine had exploded. + +A pinch on the back of the neck suggested the application of a blister and +evoked the memory of a family physician. + +A sensation of heat made him dream that robbers had entered the house and +were compelling the inmates to reveal where their money was hidden by +scorching the soles of their feet. + +Words were pronounced aloud. He attributed them to some people with whom +he had been talking in his dreams. + +A drop of water was allowed to fall on his forehead. He dreamt that he was +in Italy, feeling very hot and drinking wine. + +A red light suggested to him a storm at sea. + +Struck on the neck, he dreamt that he was a revolutionist, arrested, +tried, sentenced to death and guillotined. + +I have had some of Maury's experiments repeated on myself and the +connection between the physical stimulus and the content of the dream +leaves no doubt as to the direct relation between the two. On the other +hand, the reader will notice that the same stimuli applied to Maury and to +me produced absolutely different results. Compare my first and second +experiments with his first and third. + +1. I was tickled on the nose with a feather. I dreamt that I was entering +a forest and that branches and leaves were brushing against my face. I +made an effort to push them away with my hand. (I had taken a ride through +Central Park that very day). + +2. A bottle of perfume was held open under my nose. + +I dreamt of a landscape with thick clouds and mist to the left. Two dark +figures carrying grips were hurrying toward the right where there seemed +to be open fields, flowers, and sunlight. (The day preceding the dream had +been cloudy.) + +3. My nose was stroked with a piece of paper. + +I dreamt I met a certain writer who asked me whether another writer had +seen a certain lady and her daughter. I answered rather indifferently and +went on my way. Then I saw either the other writer or myself seated before +a window and showing a tall gaunt woman and another indistinct figure, +either Japanese prints or some manuscript, and I woke up. + +(The day preceding the dream I had revised a manuscript for a woman and +also spoken of one of the two writers.) + +4. Cold steel was applied to my throat. + +I dreamt that a cold wind was blowing; I tried to turn up my overcoat +collar and woke myself up. + +Carl Dreher has devised an apparatus which can be set to throw flashes of +light at a given time during the night and then wakes him up by means of a +buzzer. The flashes have translated themselves in many cases into +interesting visions: In one dream the last picture seen before the alarm +went off was that of a building in front of which stood very white marble +columns standing on a background of intense black. On another occasion +extremely bright green snakes hung from trees, the space between the +snakes being very dark. On another occasion he was talking to a girl who +declares herself to be "intermittently in love." In another dream, he saw +himself operating a moving picture machine which threw flashes on the +screen regardless of whether he opened or closed the switch. After many +such experiments, he saw his apparatus in a dream and woke up without +having been directly affected by the light. + +In this last dream we have a case of dream insight, the dreamer refusing +to pay any attention to a stimulus which has become familiar. This +explains the phenomenon of adaptation to stimuli. People whose bedroom is +near some source of regular constant noise can sleep in spite of that +stimulus for their nervous system no longer translates it into fear; nor +has it to interpret it lest it might create fear. + +Every one of the dreams thus produced artificially were closely related to +experiences of the day before and to some of the dreamer's memories and +complexes. + +The dreamer's unconscious was merely stimulated by the light flashes to +express itself through images including an allusion to those flashes. + +In other words, the physical stimulus, be it an impression made upon one +of the sense organs or an inner secretion, is interpreted by the sleeper +according to the ideas which dominate the sleeper's mind at the time, +memories of recent experiences or obsessive ideas. + +Which means that the personality of the dreamer expresses itself through +his dreams. We need not heed Pythagoras' warning against eating beans. It +is not the stimulus that counts; it is the end result. And the end result +seems to depend from the memories which have accumulated in our autonomic +nerves. + +Freud compares the dream work to a promoter who could never carry out his +brilliant ideas if he could not draw upon funds accumulated elsewhere (in +the unconscious). + +Silberer says that the appearance of a dream is like the outbreak of a +war. There is a popular tendency among the ignorant to attribute a war to +some superficial, visible cause, disagreement, insult, invasion. The real +causes, however, are much deeper and lie not only in the present but in +the past as well. + + + + +CHAPTER VI: CONVENIENCE DREAMS + + +Some of the hypnogogic visions and experimental dreams I have mentioned +contradict the wide-spread belief that sound sleep is untroubled by +dreams. + +The hypnagogic vision I have so often, that I wade into a body of water +and finally start swimming, only adds one more pleasant feature to my +escape from reality. Swimming is really my favourite sport. + +When my nose was tickled and I interpreted the stimulus as foliage +brushing my face on entering a forest, that vision was not meant to awaken +me, but on the contrary to keep me asleep by explaining away the tickling +sensation and removing any sense of fear which would have compelled me to +take notice once more of reality and protect myself. + +Such dreams have been designated as convenience dreams. + +Dreams of urination can be considered as typical convenience dreams. In +the morning, when the pressure of urine on the walls of the bladder +becomes stronger, dreams build up a convenient explanation around that +unpleasant stimulus. Our wish to urinate is either represented as +gratified or we are shown the impossibility of gratifying it (no toilet, +doors locked, people looking, etc.). Unless the pressure is absolutely +unbearable, we generally sleep on, satisfied or discouraged by such +convenience dreams. + +Freud tells in his "Interpretation of Dreams" of a striking convenience +dream of his and of a variation it underwent on one occasion: "If in the +evening I eat anchovies, olives or any other strongly salted food, I +become thirsty at night, whereupon I awaken. The awakening, however, is +preceded by a dream, which, each time has the same content, namely that I +am drinking. The dream serves a function, the nature of which I soon +guess. If I succeed in assuaging my thirst by means of a dream that I am +drinking, I need not wake up in order to satisfy that need. The dream +substitutes itself for action, as elsewhere in life. This same dream +recently appeared in modified form. On this occasion I became thirsty +before going to bed and emptied the glass of water which stood on a chest +near my bed. Several hours later in the night, came a new attack of +thirst, accompanied by discomfort. In order to obtain water I would have +had to get up and fetch the glass which stood on a chest near my wife's +bed. I appropriately dreamt that my wife was giving me to drink from a +vase, an Etruscan cinerary urn. But the water in it tasted so salty, +apparently from the ashes, that I had to wake up." + +On a chilly summer night a woman patient had the following dream: + +"A man took me in a canoe to the middle of a lake and upset the canoe, +saying: 'Now you belong to me.'" + +She woke up shivering. + +The lake, the canoe upset and the man in the dream were associated with +many conscious thoughts and memories of hers. But this was mainly a +convenience dream, which endeavoured to explain away the chilliness of the +night through an appropriate scene. When the unavoidable awakening took +place it was dramatized, as it is in so many cases of awakening, through a +fall accompanied by a certain fear of death. + +The few examples I have given and which could be multiplied, tend to show +that the dream, far from being a disturber of sleep, is sleep's best +protector. + +It seeks to explain away physical stimuli which might cause the sleeper to +awake and it visualizes many reasons for not experiencing the fear +usually connected with a certain stimulus. + +In every convenience dream which I have analysed, I have found a close +connection between the image conjured up by the dream work and the ideas +generally occupying the dreamer's mind in his waking states. + +In almost every case it could also be noticed that the convenience dream +made use of some experience or observation of the previous waking state, +which increases the plausibility of the dream's visualization. + + + + +CHAPTER VII: DREAM LIFE + + +The life we lead in our dreams, especially in healthy, pleasant dreams, is +simpler and easier than our waking life. + +We obliterate distance and transport ourselves wherever our fancy chooses; +our strength is herculean; we defy the law of gravitation and rise or soar +with or without wings; we brave law and custom; we abandon all modesty and +make ourselves the centre of the world, which is OUR world, not any one +else's world. + +The simplification of life is attained in dreams through three processes, +visualization, condensation and symbolization. + +The dream is always a vision. Other sensations than visual ones may be +experienced in dreams but they are only secondary elements. + +In other words, we may now and then hear sounds, perceive odours, etc., +but the dream is based primarily on a scene which is perceived visually, +not on sounds, odours, etc., now and then accompanied by a visual +perception. + +In fact we seldom hear sounds in our dreams, unless they are actual +sounds produced in our immediate environment; the people who address us in +dreams do not actually emit sounds but seem to communicate their thought +to us directly without any auditory medium. Seldom do we taste or smell +things in dreams. + +On the other hand, we translate every stimulus reaching our senses in +sleep, be it sound, taste, smell, touch, into a visual presentation. This +process is to be compared to the gesticulation of primitive individuals +who attempt to visualize everything they describe, indicating the length, +height, bulk of objects through more or less appropriate mimic and who +convey the idea of a bad odour by holding their nose, of pleasing food, by +rubbing their stomach, etc. + +The dramatization of every thought and every problem follows the line of +least effort. And this explains the popularity of the movies, the +enjoyment of which does not presuppose on the part of the audience any +capacity to conceive abstract ideas. + +Movie audiences are undoubtedly the least intelligent aggregations of +people. They are not _told_ that a crime has been committed, they are +_shown_ the crime while it is being committed. Captions warn them of what +they are going to see, that they may not misunderstand the meaning of any +scene. The movie, like our unconscious, translates every thought into a +visual sensation, and when a psychological change cannot very well be +visualized, for instance when the villain decides not to kill the ingenue, +the fact is flashed on the screen in large type. + +Pleasures of the eye are probably stronger and simpler than those +vouchsafed by other sensory organs.[3] The most uninteresting parade will +attract thousands of people, many more for instance, than free concerts in +the open. Illustrated lectures appeal to more people than lectures without +illustrations. Displays in shop windows, picturesque signs, possess a +greater selling power than the best advertising copy. + +In our waking life, we express our thoughts to ourselves and others +through the algebra of abstract concepts. We speak of length, height, +volume, weight, hardness, coldness, etc. It is doubtful, however, whether +we can imagine length without thinking specifically of something long. In +our dreams, the concept length disappears and is always replaced by +something long. + +We notice that abstract thinking is more tiresome than descriptive +thinking, that abstract facts demand more exertion in order to be grasped, +than concrete facts. A philosopher expounding his theories to an audience +tires himself and the audience quicker than an explorer would, describing +his travels and possibly illustrating his talk by means of lantern slides. + +Dream life is further simplified through condensation. This process is the +one through which, in waking life, we reach generalizations. When we think +of a house we select the essential characteristics of the various houses +we have seen, the properties wherein a house essentially differs from, let +us say, a bird or a river. In our dreams, condensation is less subtle and +more directly based upon our experience. + +We combine several persons into one, selecting as a rule the most striking +features of every one of them. We may see a dream character with the eyes +of one person, the nose of another and the beard of a third one. + +Freud having made one proposal to two different men, Dr. M. and his +brother, the former having a beard and the latter being clean shaven and +suffering from hip trouble, combined them in a dream in a figure which +looked like Dr. M., but was beardless and limped. + +One of Ferenczi's patients dreamt of a monster with the head of a +physician, the body of a horse and draped in a nightgown. + +Silberer dreamt of an animal which had the head of a tiger and the body of +a horse. + +This is a process similar to the one which in the infancy of the race gave +birth to strange composite gods and mythological creatures like the +Assyrian bull a combination of man's intelligence, the bull's strength and +the bird's power of flight, the various Egyptian deities in whom the +process was reversed, for so many had the heads of animals and the bodies +of men, the satyrs and syrens, combining respectively man and goat, woman +and fish, Pegasus, the winged horse, etc. + +Finally, dream life is simplified through the symbolic representation of +human beings or inanimate things. + +In symbolization, one striking characteristic of some complicated object +is isolated from the others and some other object with only one +characteristic substituted for it. Slang is made up of such +symbolizations. Think of the expression "bats in the belfry," in which the +complicated human head is replaced by an architectural detail much simpler +in character and occupying in an edifice the same position which the head +occupies in human anatomy. Then, instead of describing absurd ideas, of a +sinister colouring, without definite direction, we simply visualize queer +creatures, half bird and half mouse, flitting about blindly. + +Instead of explaining that the central figure of the christian religion is +a godlike creature who died crucified, we select the most striking detail +of the Passion, the cross, which to the initiated and uninitiated alike +signifies christianity. In many cases we do not even represent the cross +as that instrument of torture really looked but we simplify it, we +symbolize it, by using a conventional design in which the proportion +between the cross pieces has been entirely disregarded. + +Symbolization is a reduction of an object to one essential detail which +has struck us as more important than the others. + +A child will designate a watch as a "tick-tick," a dog as a "bow-wow," +because to his simple mind, ticking and barking are the essential +characteristics of a watch and a dog. + +In dreams, we simplify the concept of the body and often represent it by a +house. The authority vested in the father and mother causes them often to +be symbolized by important personages, etc. + +Without any more explanation, I shall sum up the various dream symbols +whose selection is easily understood. + +Birth is often symbolized by a plunge into water or some one climbing out +of it or rescuing some one from the water. + +Death is represented by taking a journey, being dead, by darksome +suggestions. + +A great many symbols in dreams are sexual symbols. The figure 3, all +elongated or sharp objects, such as sticks, umbrellas, knifes, daggers, +revolvers, plowshares, pencils, files, objects from which water flows, +faucets, fountains, animals such as reptiles and fishes, in certain cases +hats and cloaks are used to represent the male sex. + +The female sex is symbolized on the contrary by hollow objects, pits, +caves, boxes, trunks, pockets, ships. + +The breasts are represented by apples, peaches and fruits in general, +balconies, etc. + +Fertility is symbolized by ploughed fields, gardens, etc. + +I have shown in another book, "Psychoanalysis, Its History, Theory and +Practice," that symbols are absolutely universal and that the folklore of +the various races and of the various centuries draws upon the same +material for the purpose of simplified representation. Differences in +climate, fauna and flora are purely superficial. Dwellers of the Polar +regions are not likely to compare anything to a palm tree which they have +never seen, nor will tropical races symbolize coldness through snowfields. + +Experiments made by Dr. Karl Schrötter have confirmed Freud's and Jung's +theories of symbolization in dreams. To the uninitiated and sceptical, +dream symbols generally appear rather ludicrous fancies and not a few +opponents of psychoanalysis hold that symbols were resorted to by analysts +unable to read an obvious wish fulfilment in every dream. + +Schrötter hypnotized his patients, then suggested to them a dream outline, +ordering them also to indicate through an appropriate gesture when the +dream would begin and end. This enabled him, by the way, to record the +duration of every dream.[4] + +He then awakened the subject and made him tell his dream. + +One of his patients, a woman drawing toward middle age, who had been +greatly upset when she learnt that the man she loved was suffering from +syphilis, was asked to have a dream symbolizing her state of mind. Here is +the vision she had: + +"I am walking through a forest on an autumn day. The path is steep and I +feel chilly. Some one whom I cannot distinguish is near me. I only feel +the touch of a hand. I am very thirsty. I would like to slake my thirst at +a spring but there is a sign on the spring that means poison: a skull and +cross bones." + +The fancy is rather poetical and this example is quite typical of the +symbolization of our life's incidents by the dream work. + +A patient with a strong resistance to the analytic method saw me in a +dream "carrying a fake refrigerator full of make-believe meats, vegetables +and fruits." + +The interpretation is obvious. I am carrying in a deceptive way an +assortment of ideas which can be of no use to any one. + +The refrigerator implies that the ideas are not even new but old and +stale. + +The patient's repressions were such that, although the dream struck him as +strange and he remembered it several months, he was unable to puzzle out +its meaning. It expressed his mental state at the time and yet having made +up his mind not to doubt me or the analytic treatment, he become unable +to accept any disparaging thought consciously. + +Unconsciously, however, he expressed his doubts in most striking symbolism +which he did not himself understand. + +This should be borne in mind if we wish to understand the psychology of +nightmares. For in nightmares we may express a wish through a symbol which +expresses it fittingly, but which we do not understand and which, on that +account, may frighten us. + +Let those who sneer at the study of symbols watch some of the attitudes +assumed by insane people[5] who have reached the lowest level of +deterioration. Let them see a picture published in the issue of the +_Journal of Mental and Nervous Disease_ for January, 1920, and which +represents a hospital patient who has reached the lowest degree of +infantilism. The patient hung herself in a blanket attached to a nail in +front of a window. There she spent her days in the characteristic attitude +of the unborn child in the womb. + +Everything in that attitude was symbolical of her regression to, not only +infancy, but the prenatal condition. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII: WISH FULFILMENT + + +An evening paper published recently a cartoon showing a kiddie in bed who +asks his mother: "What makes me dream?"--"You eat too much meat," the +mother answers. The next scene is laid in the kitchen where the mother +finds her child ransacking the ice box for meat. + +Parents could testify to the illustrator's knowledge of the childish soul. +Children like to dream and Freud's statement that every dream contains the +fulfilment of some wish is confirmed by the dreams of healthy children. + +Children attain in their sleep visions the simple pleasures which are +denied them in their waking states. + +Freud's little daughter, three and a half years old, being kept one day on +a rather strict diet, owing to some gastric disturbance, was heard to call +excitedly in her sleep: "Anna Freud, strawberry, huckleberry, omelette, +pap." + +On one occasion she was taken across a lake and enjoyed the trip so much +that she cried bitterly at the landing when compelled to leave the boat. +The next morning she told the family a dream in which she had been +sailing on the lake. + +Freud's little nephew, Hermann, aged twenty-one months, was once given the +task of offering his uncle, as a birthday present, a little basket full of +cherries. He performed that duty rather reluctantly. The following day he +awakened joyously with the information which could only have been derived +from a dream: "Hermann ate all the cherries." + +The _London Times_ of Nov. 8, 1919, had a report of a lecture by Dr. C. W. +Kimmins, chief inspector of the London Education Committee, on the +significance of children's dreams. He based his statements on the written +records of the dreams of 500 children between the ages of eight and +sixteen years. + +Up to the age of ten, dreams of eating predominated, but their number fell +off after ten, when dreams of visits to the country began to increase. +Dreams of presents and eating at all ages from eight to fourteen, were +much more frequent with children of the poorer classes that with those +from well-to-do districts and there was an appreciable increase of their +number about Christmas time. Retrospective dreams were very uncommon among +all children. + +Obvious wish fulfilment dreams were less common among boys than among +girls, the proportion being respectively twenty-eight and forty-two per +cent. + +Boys below ten had more fear dreams than girls of the same age. In both +sexes it was some "old man" who terrified the dreamers. Both sexes +suffered equally from the fear of animals, lions, tigers and bulls in the +case of the boys, dogs, rats, snakes and mice in the case of the girls. + +From ten to fifteen a falling off in the number of fear dreams was very +noticeable among boys, whereas among girls it rather increased. + +That increase was especially striking among girls of 16 and over, who were +generally frightened by animals and strange men and women. + +When school life played a part in children's dreams it was more frequently +the playgrounds than the classrooms which were visualized. + +The war affected boys' more than girls' dreams. The dreaming boy was a +valorous fighter, mentioned in dispatches, rewarded with the Victoria +Cross, thanked personally by the King; or he returned home wildly cheered +by crowds. + +Girls, thirteen or over, saw themselves as Red Cross nurses, but no such +dreams were observed in girls below ten. + +Normal, healthy children delighted in dreaming and telling their dreams +with a wealth of detail. + +Dr. Kimmins mentioned that, while the dreams of school children were +generally easy to interpret, the dreams of students from 18 to 22 "were so +heavily camouflaged that it would be impossible for any one who was not a +trained expert in psychoanalysis to deal with them satisfactorily." + +We can see how the repression made necessary by life conditions in modern +communities slowly but surely transforms the obvious wish-fulfilment +dreams of children into the symbolical and often distressing visions of +the adult. The development of sexuality in boys and girls and the +repression to which it is submitted explains easily the proportion of fear +dreams in girls and boys. + +Sexual talk and sexual curiosity are more common among boys than girls and +therefore occupy the boys' minds more constantly than the girls' minds. On +the other hand, many of the boys above sixteen find forms of sexual +satisfaction of which the girls of the same age are deprived. Fear dreams +are therefore more frequent among growing girls, being simply a symbolical +form of sexual gratification. + +The dreams of adults are far from being as uniformly pleasurable as those +of young and healthy children. + +A few of them are frankly pleasant; most of them are apparently +indifferent and a few of them frankly unpleasant. + +The pleasant dreams of the adults require as little interpretation as +those of children and are obviously the fulfilment of conscious or +unconscious wishes. + +A patient of mine, camping in the woods alone, dreamt during a rainy night +that some of his friends were camping with him, that one of them had gone +to a neighbouring inn to secure better accommodations and finally that he +was in his own bed at home. + +Nordenskjold in his book "The Antarctic," published in 1904, mentions that +during the winter which he spent in the polar wilderness, his dreams and +those of his men "were more frequent and more vivid than they had ever +been before. They all referred to the outer world which was so far from +us.... Eating and drinking formed the central point around which most of +our dreams were grouped. One of us, who was fond of going to big dinner +parties, was exceedingly glad when he could report in the morning that he +had had a three course dinner. Another dreamed of tobacco, mountains of +it; still another dreamed of a ship approaching on the open sea under full +sail. Still another dream deserves mention: the postman brought the mail +and gave a long explanation of why he had to wait so long.... One can +readily understand why we longed for sleep. IT ALONE COULD GIVE US ALL THE +THINGS WHICH WE MOST ARDENTLY DESIRED." [Capitals mine.] + +Other dreams of wish-fulfilment appear at first glance either indifferent +or absurd. Interpreted according to the technique outlined in Chapter +XVII, however, they soon yield a meaning which is rather convincing. + +The following dream, recorded by a patient, would not lead the +inexperienced interpreter to suspect the sinister death wish which it is +meant to express in an indirect way. + +"I was visiting a factory and saw Charles working as a glassblower." + +Charles was the first name of a wealthy man who seduced a girl with whom +the dreamer was in love. The wealthy man is reduced to the condition of a +working man. The patient's unconscious association to _glass blower_ +proved to be _consumption_. The patient had once read statistics showing +that a large number of glassblowers died from that disease. A very neatly +concealed death wish. + +In other cases the death wish, while obvious in the manifest dream +content, appears absurd and may cause the patient some anxiety. One of +Ferenczi's patients, who was extremely fond of dogs, dreamt that she was +choking a little white dog to death. + +Word associations brought out the memory of a relative with an unusually +_pallid_ face whom she had recently ordered out of her house, saying later +that she would not have such a snarling _dog_ about her. It was that +white-faced woman, not a white dog, whose neck she wished to wring. + +Here is another example in which the wish fulfilment is cleverly +concealed. + +"I am standing on a hill with Albert and somebody else. Bombs are falling +about us. One of them strikes his car which is destroyed."[6] + +The patient, a woman, is in love with Albert and enjoys greatly riding +with him in his car. Why should she wish to see it wrecked? + +The key to the enigma was given by the associations to the "somebody +else." The somebody else was another woman whom Albert had taken to ride +on several occasions and of whom my patient was very jealous. By +destroying the car, the jealous woman was putting an end to the rides +which had especially aroused her jealousy. + +The following dream seems rather unpleasant without being however an +actual nightmare. + +DREAM: I heard a noise downstairs and went to investigate. Upon reaching +the bottom of the stairs, I found a man lying on the floor with his coat +off and drunk. Later he was hiding from me and running about the house. +The man was captured and brought back by another man who cross-examined +him. The other man made excuses for the thief and said he probably +intended to steal but as he had a toothache he had sought the cellar and +drunk to deaden the pain. To prove his explanations he opened the thief's +mouth and pointed to a large cavity in one tooth. + +INTERPRETATION: The patient who brought me the dream was a young woman +who, at the time, was worrying lest her husband should discover an +indiscretion she had committed in her own house. The thief in the dream +turned out to be her lover and the man who captures him, her husband. +Everything is made simple and pleasant by the fact that the husband takes +it upon himself to make excuses for the man he has captured. The excuse +of the cavity was an allusion to alleged visits to a dentist's office +which supplied her with alibis on various occasions. + +We spend a part of the night, if not the entire night, seeking solutions +for the problems of the day. Patients who have been trained to remember +and record their dreams accurately, sometimes bring a series of visions, +apparently unrelated, but which after interpretation, prove to be +successive presentations of one and the same problem from different +angles. + + + + +CHAPTER IX: NIGHTMARES + + +The Freudian theory of wish-fulfilment easily accepted by the layman as +solving the problem of pleasant or indifferent dreams, meets with a most +sceptical reception when it is applied to unpleasant dreams, to +nightmares, which are characterized by a varying degree of anxiety. + +What I said in a previous chapter on the subject of symbols explains why +certain wish-fulfilment dreams are perceived and remembered as nightmares. +A woman may dream that she is surrounded by snakes, bitten by a dog, +pursued by a bull, trampled down by a horse. A man may dream that he is +stabbed in the back or that he is sinking slowly into water. In the first +case we have a symbolic expression of the woman's desire for sexual +intercourse, in the second a symbolic expression of the man's desire for +homosexual gratification or for regression to the fetal stage (assuming of +course that those various symbols have not a personal significance for the +subject). + +The anxiety connected with those visions is due to the subject's +inability or unwillingness to recognize as his the unconscious desires +expressed by symbols. + +In not a few cases, the sleeper creates a dream situation which is +distressing, full of danger, but which leads to a triumphal climax in +which his ego reaps a rich reward of glory. + +Stekel in "The Language of the Dream," records a fine dream of his in +which his egotism is vouchsafed all forms of gratification. + +DREAM: "I am in a great hall. On the stage there is a composite, +centaurlike creature, half horse and half wolf or tiger. I am standing +near the door, fearing that the beast might get out of bounds. In fact the +tiger tears himself loose from the horse and leaps toward the door. I slam +it shut and lock it up. After a while, I re-enter the hall. I behold a +wild panic. Krafft-Ebing, the lion tamer, is rushing here and there. A man +with two children is shaking with fear. Trumpet calls are heard coming +from the tower." + +INTERPRETATION: "The dream was connected with a heated discussion in which +I had taken part, about Zola's 'The Human Beast.' I contended that in +every man there is a pathological strain and that no one is in absolute +control of the beast. I see myself under two different aspects. I am the +wolf or tiger and I lock the door in order that the wild cravings may not +get loose. How great I am in this dream! Krafft-Ebing, the famous expert +in sexual pathology, runs about helpless, while I hold the beasts in my +power. The fear-stricken fellow with the two children is myself, an +obviously tragic figure, symbolizing another side of my nature. The +trumpet calls are from Beethoven's Fidelio. My marital faithfulness +triumphs over my wildest urges. I am a model for all to imitate and I +sound loud warnings." + +In a dream reported by a patient who was unconsciously trying to break his +appointment with me, the anxiety is purely hypocritical, for each new +obstacle placed in the dreamer's path is a new excuse for not reaching my +office on time. + +"I was on Riverside Drive, strolling north. Mr. Tridon came along in the +same direction, bare-headed and riding on a bicycle. He came near running +into a boy, also on a bicycle, but swerved sharply and avoided a +collision. + +"I was hurrying to keep the appointment with Mr. Tridon which I had for +5.30 P. M. (I really had an appointment for 11.30 in the morning) but felt +that I could not be there on time. My watch had stopped and the clocks I +saw in stores had stopped likewise. The location was the slope of +Morningside Heights and my direction still seemed to be northerly. + +"Another transition and I was climbing a hill near what looked like the +99th Street station of the 3rd Avenue L. Near the summit the going became +very steep and I was unable to go on, although I tried to scramble up on +my hands and knees. I turned to the left, however, and climbed stairs +leading through a white house, which I understood to be a school. There +was a woman there with a few children. I then issued into a wide avenue +running east and west which looked like Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn. A +trolley came along but as I ran for it, it seemed as though I had lost my +coat. I turned back anxiously to find it but discovered that I was +carrying it on my arm. I woke up before the next car came along." + +After attempting to ridicule me, the dreamer rehearsed all the excuses he +might offer me for missing an appointment: Mistake about the hour, clocks +stopped, going to the wrong direction (north instead of south), finally +landing in Brooklyn, far from my office and missing several cars, etc.... + +A young woman who had been invited several times by a friend to come and +visit her and who had exhausted all the possible excuses for refusing such +an invitation had the following dream after receiving one more letter +renewing the invitation: + +"My friend's abode was a new apartment and I spent a night there. Upon +awaking in the morning I discovered something crawling on my bed which +looked like a caterpillar. I was disgusted and frightened. I went into the +bathroom and there too found insects of the same species but very small in +size. They reminded me of spiders and the ceiling and the walls were +entirely 'decorated' with them. + +"I then decided to tell my friend to call this to the attention of the +landlady and as I entered my friend's room I found her and the landlady +cleaning my friend's bed. + +"I told the landlady how unpleasant it is to have such creatures in one's +apartment and she said: 'The rooms were left unpainted for some time and +this is the cause of it.'" + +An unpleasant dream, containing a little anxiety and some disgust and yet, +a solution offered for the young woman's problem, a reason for not +accepting the invitation. The place is not clean. + +The next dream is also an effort at finding a solution for a distressing +problem: + +DREAM: "I was at home; some one looking like a nurse said: 'Come up +stairs. You are going to have a baby.' I was neither surprised nor +worried. The nurse added: 'When you have had the baby, you can select a +husband for yourself.' I followed her and lay on a bed waiting for pains. +Feeling nothing I grew impatient and went downstairs. Suddenly I became +frightened and decided I must not have the child. I started to think how I +could find a doctor to perform an abortion. I awoke suddenly with a +tremendous sense of relief." + +INTERPRETATION: The patient is a southern girl living in New York. Home +for her means the small town where her family resides. She has had a +liaison and has often worried about possible consequences. The first part +of the dream is a solution offered by the dream. She is at home, pregnant, +but it seems natural to every one and the nurse (a nurse girl of her +childhood days) is not only taking the matter as natural but shows her the +advantages of her condition. On the other hand, the girl is frigid in love +and used to associate pregnancy with orgasm. The pregnancy means here the +fulfilment of her wish for an orgasm. Also it reveals her secret desire +that her lover might be compelled to marry her. The lack of labor pains is +another form of wish-fulfilment. The end of the dream indicates the mental +processes of the patient, and her struggle against a regression. She first +attempts to solve the problem by running back to "home and nurse" but +insight enables her to analyse her dream and return to real life. + +There is no doubt but some painful dreams are, without any symbolism or +distortion of any kind, dreams of obvious wish-fulfilment. + +There is a human type which enjoys pain, be it inflicted by others or +self-torture, and to which fear and anxiety vouchsafe a good deal of +gratification. + +When we remember the workings of our autonomic nerves we may not wonder at +that fact. Pain, anxiety or fear pour into our blood stream fuel which +gives us for a few minutes or a few hours a feeling of energy and power we +may lack, and secretions which cause an arterial tension translated easily +into "excitement," "exhilaration," etc. + +Children of the masochistic type like to have some one tell them stories +of the most nightmarish variety which fill them with terror. We have all +met the child who at some time or other makes the strange request: "Scare +me." + +Anxiety dreams may play the part of a bracer and tonic in subjects of that +type. The strange ritual of some primitive races, ancient and modern, in +which mourners slash themselves or pull their hair or beards, corresponds +closely from the endocrine point of view to the craving for terrible +fairy tales or the frequency of certain anxiety dreams. The secretions +brought forth by that self-inflicted pain may combat successfully the +depression due to the loss of a dearly beloved person. + + + + +CHAPTER X: TYPICAL DREAMS AND SLEEP WALKING + + +Thousands of explanations have been offered for typical dreams which +almost every one has had at least once, such as dreams of falling or +flying, but none of them should be accepted as covering all cases. + +The human mind is compelled to do its thinking along certain lines and to +use certain categories like time, space, etc. + +Naturally, dreams, which are in no way different from waking thoughts, +must move along certain definite grooves too; but we must remember that no +symbol has an absolute meaning. Every symbol is likely to have a slightly +different meaning for every individual. + +We shall see in the chapter on "Attitudes in Dreams" that it is the type +of dreams rather than their content which is important psychologically. +And it is the type of man who dreams which is important to bear in mind +when we try to ferret out the meaning of a typical dream. + +Generally speaking, flying dreams seem to correspond to one of the most +universal cravings of mankind: to liberate itself from the tyranny of the +law of gravity and enjoy the freedom which winged creatures enjoy. All +races have wished to fly and that desire, never gratified in waking life +until recently, was bound to express itself in the dreams of all races at +all periods of history. + +Freud has suggested that such dreams repeat memories of childhood games, +rocking, see-sawing; Federn has seen in them a symbol of sexual +excitement, both of which explanations sound unconvincing. + +There may be a symbolism of a different sort about flying dreams. + +If for some reason or other, our sleep becomes suddenly much deeper, we +may represent our "flight" from reality through a flight through the air. +We soar to the dream level which we feel to be higher than the waking +level, to which on awakening, we fall painfully. Variations in the sleep +depth would thus account for the frequent relation of sequence which is +observable between flying and falling dreams. Flying dreams are never +connected with any fear of anxiety, while falling dreams are almost always +nightmares of usually short duration. + +The Freudians see in many falling dreams memories of falls in childhood. +"Nearly all children," Freud writes, "have fallen occasionally and then +been picked up and fondled; if they fell out of bed at night, they were +picked up by their nurse and taken into her bed." + +This explanation fits only an insignificant number of cases. + +The symbolism of the falling dream is found upon analysis to be much +richer. + +In women, dreams of falling are very often symbolical of sexual surrender. +Anxiety or pleasure connected with falling dreams reveals the fear or +pleasure connected with such a thought in the dreamer's mind. Not a few +falling dreams transform themselves after a slight period of anxiety into +flying dreams, thus indicating that the feeling of inferiority connected +with the idea of surrender was very slight and easily replaced by a +feeling of power, freedom and superiority to environment and conventions. + +Dreams of falling are sometimes "followed" by a terrified awakening. In +reality it is the awakening due to some physical stimulus, noise, light, +pain, etc., _which is followed by a falling dream_. The dream in that case +is symbolical of the act of awaking. + +The anxiety is the natural displeasure felt by the dreamer when suddenly +compelled to pass from dreamland into reality. This symbolism is rather +apt, for the awakening lowers us from the free and irresponsible estate of +the dream creature to the slavery entailed by leading a real life. We fall +from the heights of our dreams to the depths of reality. + +At times, the dreamer has the impression of being mangled or killed as a +result of that fall. + +Death is again a powerful symbol indicative of the dreamer's attitude. He +feels he is dying when compelled to return to reality. Such a type is more +dangerously attached to his fiction than the one who only resents awaking +as a diminution of his ego and power. + +Dreams of falling teeth may be symbolical of unconscious onanistic +tendencies. The slang of many languages has established a connection which +cannot be casual between the pulling of teeth and sexual +self-gratification. + +In dreams in which teeth grow again in the dreamer's mouth we may see a +return to childish attitudes and memories of the years when the first +teeth fell out and were replaced by stronger ones. An optimistic attitude, +if somewhat regressive. + +When a certain tooth or group of teeth keeps on recurring in dream +pictures, an X-ray examination of the entire denture should be made. I +have observed several cases in which such dreams revealed the presence of +root abscesses causing absolutely no conscious irritation and only felt +unconsciously. Those dreams were both a warning and a wish-fulfilment +(painless extraction). + +Dreams of nakedness, like dreams of flying, seem to express one of +mankind's cravings, freedom from clothes. In the Earthly Paradise, Adam +and Eve were naked and unashamed; all the gods and goddesses of the +ancient religions were unclothed; even in our days academic sculptors +represent modern heroes naked. Painters and sculptors of all epochs have +been inclined to glorify the nude in their works. + +It is quite unnecessary to construct such dreams as a return to +infantilism, as a regression, as the Freudians generally do. + +The attitude of the onlookers in those dreams contains a very obvious form +of wish-fulfilment: whether we sit at a banquet or walk across a drawing +room or appear on a street naked or half unclothed, no one seems to notice +us. We generally try to hide or to drape ourselves in as dignified a +manner as possible in whatever scanty garments we retain, but the anxiety +is all on our side. + +Such dreams cannot be dreams of exhibitionism for they are never +accompanied by the wish that people should see us, nor do we ever derive +any pleasure from our exposure. I would be inclined to consider them in +almost every case as symbolic dreams of attitudes. We are labouring under +the burden of some secret which we are afraid of revealing. In spite of +our anxiety, we are comforted by the fact that our secret (our total or +partial nakedness) escapes the beholders. Our danger and our escape are +simply visualized and symbolized. + +The symbolism of our exposure is quite obvious. The upper part of our body +is usually covered up and it is the "lower" part of it which is exposed, +and which we awkwardly try to wrap up in our shirt tails or to conceal +under a table cloth or behind furniture or bushes. We are concealing +something shameful, "low." Everybody knows the symbolism of high and low, +right and left, which is expressed by the language of all races. + +One form of anxiety dream in which we grope our way through endless narrow +passages, room after room, up and down flights of stairs, has been +considered by some analysts as a memory of the first event of our life, +when we were forced violently, painfully, through a narrow passage and +finally reached the light of day. When the detail of those dreams is +closely analysed it will prove much more valuable and important than a +mere regression to the infantile. + +They will generally turn out to be the sort of dreams that coincide with +the solution of a crisis and indicate that an adaptation to life has been +reached, that the subject has been "reborn." + +Sleep walking is one variety of typical dream characterized by a greater +motor activity than the usual dream in which we either lie still or only +perform incomplete motions. Sleep walkers, like ordinary dreamers, +performed in their somnambulistic states actions which they have refrained +from performing in their waking states. While the sense of direction and +of orientation seems unimpaired in sleep walkers, their perception of +reality is very rudimentary. + +Two cases reported by the Encyclopédie Française and by Krafft-Ebing, +respectively, illustrate that point. + +A young man used to get up at night, go to his study and write. + +Observers would now and then substitute a sheet of blank paper for the +sheet which he had covered with writing. When he had finished, he would +read over his manuscript aloud and repeat correctly, while holding the +blank sheet before his eyes, the words written on the sheet which had +been taken from him. + +One night the prior of a monastery was seated at his desk. A monk entered, +a knife in his hand. He took no notice of the prior but went to the bed +and plunged his knife into it several times; after which he returned to +his cell. The next morning the monk told the prior of a terrible dream he +had had. The prior had killed the monk's mother and the monk had avenged +her by stabbing the prior to death. Thereupon he had awakened, horrified, +and thanking God that the whole affair had only been a dream. + +In sleep walking dreams there is an accuracy, a singleness of purpose, a +concentration of attention which has always struck all observers. + +The sleeper often wakes up when called by name, but he generally obeys +without waking, all commands of a sensible character, such as to go back +to bed. + +The sleeper often finds his way and locates the objects he may need for +the purposes of his dream with his eyes closed, but noises and collisions +with objects often fail to bring him back to waking consciousness. + +Sadger has attempted to point a connection between moonlight and sleep +walking, which he calls at times "moon walking." + +The conclusions which he reaches at the end of his book on the subject are +as follows: + +"Sleep walking, under or without the influence of the moon, represents a +motor outbreak of the unconscious and serves, like the dream, the +fulfilment of secret, forbidden wishes, first of the present, behind +which, however, infantile wishes regularly hide. Both prove themselves _in +all the cases analysed_ more or less completely as of a sexual erotic +nature. + +"Also those wishes which present themselves without disguise, are mostly +of the same nature. The leading wish may be claimed to be that the +sleepwalker, male or female, would climb into bed with the loved object as +in childhood. The love object need not belong necessarily to the present; +it can much more likely be one of earliest childhood. + +"Not infrequently the sleep walker identifies himself with the beloved +person, sometimes even puts on his clothes, linen or outer garments, or +imitates his manner. + +"Sleep walking can also have an infantile prototype, when the child +pretends to be asleep, that it may be able without fear or punishment to +experience all sorts of forbidden things, because it cannot be held +accountable for what it does 'unconsciously in its sleep.' The same cause +works also psychically, when sleep walking occurs mostly in the deepest +sleep, even if organic causes are likewise responsible for it. + +"The motor outbreak during sleep, which drives one from rest in bed and +results in sleep walking and wandering under the light of the moon, may be +referred to this, that all sleep walkers exhibit a heightened muscular +irritability and muscle erotic, the endogenous excitement of which can +compensate for the giving up of the rest in bed. In accordance with this, +these phenomena are especially frequent in the offspring of alcoholics, +epileptics, sadists and hysterics, with preponderating involvement of the +motor apparatus. + +"Sleep walking and moon walking are in themselves as little symptoms of +hysteria as of epilepsy; yet they are found frequently in conjunction with +the former. + +"The moon's light is reminiscent of the light in the hand of a beloved +parent. Fixed gazing upon the planet also has probably an erotic +colouring. + +"It seems possible that sleep walking and moon walking may be permanently +cured through the psychoanalytic method." + + + + +CHAPTER XI: PROPHETIC DREAMS + + +Every one has heard relations of prophetic dreams which seem to imply a +sense of unconscious sight going far beyond the limits of our conscious +visual perceptions. It may be that, even as certain vibrations can be sent +and received without any transmitting medium except the atmosphere, by +wireless, certain visual information can be received, at times, under +certain conditions, without any perception of such phenomena reaching the +consciousness. + +At the same time, this is a field on which one must tread most carefully, +for telepathy has never been studied very scientifically and the +telepathic dreams which have been related to me or which I have read about +had been recorded rather carelessly and the circumstances surrounding them +had not been noted with the regard for accuracy which must characterize +scientific research. + +A few times in my life, I have had the infinite surprise when lifting the +telephone receiver, of hearing the voice of the very person I was going to +call up and who had called me up at the same minute. On the other hand, I +have endeavoured with the help of very intimate friends to effect +synchronic transmission of thought and have failed dismally on every +occasion. + +While I have never had prophetic dreams I have recorded one dream of mine +which might be characterized as a "second sight" dream. + +One day I mislaid some documents which once belonged to my father. + +That night my father appeared to me and pointed to a desk drawer where the +papers would be found. The next morning I looked in that drawer and found +the documents. + +I certainly placed the documents myself in that drawer the day before and +forgot the fact. But the unconscious memory of that action was retained +and came up at night while my mind was at work solving the problem of the +lost documents. + +If that explanation should meet with scepticism I would remind the reader +that the wealth of information with which our unconscious is filled +permits of unconscious mental operations of which in our conscious states +we would be incapable. Janet's subject, Lucie, who was lacking in +mathematical ability, could, in her unconscious states, perform +calculations of an extreme complication. He would give her under hypnosis +the following order: "When the figures which I am going to read off to +you, leave six when subtracted one from the other, make a gesture of the +hand." Then he would wake her up, and ask several people to talk to her +and to make her talk. Standing at a certain distance from her, he would +then read rapidly in a low voice a list of figures, but when the +appropriate figures were read, Lucie never failed to make the gesture +agreed upon. + +We notice thousands of things unconsciously, which means simply that every +sensorial impression causes a modification of our autonomic system and +probably of our sensory-motor system which is never completely effaced. + +During our waking hours only those memory impressions which are needed +rise to consciousness. The many observations we have made, consciously or +otherwise, enable us to calculate the distance between us and an +automobile, the speed of that automobile, the width of the street, the +dryness or the slippery conditions of the pavement, and to select the time +for crossing as well as the speed at which we shall cross. + +In our sleep, when we are revolving the day's problems and searching for +solutions, many other facts, stored up in our nervous systems, rise to +consciousness and are used in solving the problem. + +In the personal case I cited, my unconscious applied its searchlight to +recent events; in other cases reported in the literature of the subject +the unconscious is shown bringing back events which seemed to have been +entirely forgotten. + +Our organism never forgets. + +Forgotten incidents which suddenly rise to consciousness in dreams are +sometimes responsible for visions which on superficial observation appear +truly prophetic. Maury cites the following in his book on "Sleep and +Dreams": + +"Mr. F. decided once to visit the house where he had been brought up in +Montbrison and which he had not seen in twenty-five years. The night +before he started on his trip, he dreamt that he was in Montbrison and +that he met a man who told him he was a friend of his father. Several days +later, while in Montbrison he actually met the man he had seen in his +dream and who turned out to be some one he really knew in his childhood, +but had forgotten in the intervening years. The real person was much older +than the one in the dream, which is quite natural." + +One finds in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research many +remarkable examples of dreams which, to the uninitiated, appear truly +miraculous. Remembering, however, the wonders accomplished by Lucie under +the influence of a hypnotic command, we may realize that the book-keepers +who suddenly find in a dream the mistakes which have prevented them from +balancing their books, or the various people who locate missing objects, +are simply continuing in their sleep the day's work, drawing no longer +upon their limited store of conscious memories and impressions, but upon +all the wealth of information which is contained in their unconscious. + +Even the famous dream of Professor Hilprecht loses much of its glamour +when viewed from this angle. Hilprecht had spent quite some time trying to +decipher two small fragments of agate which were supposed to belong to the +finger rings of some Babylonian god. He had given up the task and +classified the fragments as undecipherable in a book on the subject. One +night he had put his "o. k." on the final proofs of that book, feeling, +however, rather dissatisfied at his inability to account for the +inscriptions found on those ancient stones. He went to bed, weary and +exhausted and had a remarkable dream: A tall, thin priest of Nippur +appeared to him, led him to the treasure chamber of the temple of Bel and +told him that the two fragments in question should be put together, as +they were, not finger rings, but earrings made for a god by cutting a +votive cylinder into three parts. The next morning he did as the dream +priest had told him to do, and was able to read the inscription without +any difficulty. + +I have received many letters from persons relating that they had dreamt of +the San Francisco earthquake, of the sinking of the _Lusitania_, of the +death of some friend or relative the very night preceding the event. + +I show in another chapter how treacherous and unreliable our memory of +dreams can be at times. + +Happenings following quickly the awakening are likely to become +"parasites" on the night's dreams and to appear as a component part of +them. + +Time and over again, the newspaper one reads at breakfast adds details to +the night's remembered dreams. Reading about some accident in the early +morning may cause us to believe that we dreamt of the accident in the +course of the night. + +When the German submarines began to sink passenger ships, thousands of +dreamers who either wished unconsciously for such sinkings or feared them +(which is generally the same thing) and many also who craved the +excitement such catastrophes would bring them, must have had dreams in +which large ships were sunk. And those thousands must have impressed +themselves and their family circle by announcing, when the morning +newspaper came out, that they had seen the tragedy enacted in a dream. + +Here again we are groping our way over uncharted fields and not until +thousands of scientific observations made with the care characteristic of +the chemical laboratory have been made, all explanations will only be +tentative and all positive statements misleading. + +Those mentioning such dreams to me have at times been rather annoyed when +I made them confess the wish lurking in them. + +One man told me that he had three brothers at the front during the war and +that in a dream he saw one of them killed by the Germans. Soon afterward, +news of his death reached the family. + +I asked him point blank why he wanted to get rid of that brother. He +avoided giving me a direct answer but admitted that if one of the three +was to die, the one whose death he saw in his dream would be least missed +by his family as he had always made trouble and was the "black sheep."... + +Even in such cases the wish fulfilment theory holds good. + + + + +CHAPTER XII: ATTITUDES REFLECTED IN DREAMS + + +Dreams reveal to us what our unconscious cravings are and this is of +course valuable information. But cravings are only symptoms of something +more important and less easily dealt with: the subject's attitude to life. + +The neurosis is merely a wrong attitude to life and its problems. A fear +of darkness, an incestuous desire, an abnormal craving for a certain food +are no more important in themselves than a small sore appearing on one's +lip. But as the sore may mean that the organism is infected with the +spirochaeta of syphilis, the "psychic" phenomena I mentioned may mean that +the organism has adopted toward reality a negative attitude leading to +death instead of life. + +Owing to its visualizing powers, the dream makes attitudes extremely +obvious at the very first glance. + +We are as we see ourselves in our dreams. + +Positive, energetic dreams, full of action, indicate strength either in +resolve or in resistance. + +Vague dreams, full of moods rather than of action, indicate stagnation, +aimlessness. + +Dreams of adulthood, dealing with the present or the future, indicate +progression. Dreams of childhood or dealing mainly with the past, indicate +attempts at a regression. + +In his latest book, "Introduction to Psychoanalysis," Freud states that +"the unconscious in our psychic life is the infantile." + +This is one of the great Freudian exaggerations. Such a statement is true +of the neurotic and explains why he is a neurotic. In fact the more +infantile the unconscious appears to be, the more severe the neurosis +generally is, until in certain forms of malignant regression, the patient +acts like a helpless newly born infant. The predominance of infantile +material in dreams indicates a fixation on infantile gratifications which +makes the subject especially ill adapted to adult life. But in the normal +individual the amount of infantile material is very small indeed. + +We start gathering unconscious material at the very minutes of our birth, +if not before birth, but we keep on accumulating experiences, most of them +unconscious and only rising to consciousness when needed, and conscious +experiences which become unconscious when not needed. + +It is the proportion of material from the various periods of our life +which enables us to gauge the level a human being has reached through his +intelligent, positive acceptance of present day reality. I say acceptance +of reality rather than adaptation to reality, for adaptation implies a +certain suppression, and suppression may mean neurosis. + +It is the human being who satisfies all his infantile cravings within a +sphere of activity beneficial to himself and the world, who remains +healthy. He who tries to satisfy them through infantile or childish ways +merges into a neurosis. + +We have seen that the dreams of children and of simple, normal people are +obvious and devoid of any symbolic disfigurement. Children dream of the +food or the pleasures they had to forego in the previous waking state. +Nordenskjold and his sailors, icebound in the Antarctic, dreamt of fine +meals, of tobacco, of ships sailing the open sea, of mail from home, in +other words of the things of which they had been deprived for months. + +The use of symbols in dreams, on the other hand, indicates a lack of +freedom of expression due to some fear or repression. A repressed vision +appears on the screen of our mind in symbolized form. + +A highly symbolical dream is almost always a pathological dream. It means +that we do not dare, even in our dreams, to visualize directly the thing +we are thinking of. + +The phenomenon which Freud has designated as "displacement" also indicates +an attempt at repressing certain important facts by harping on other facts +of lesser importance. + +A child surprised in a part of the house where his presence is suspicious +is not likely to reveal abruptly his plans. He will in all likelihood tell +some story from which the real reason for his presence is carefully +excluded. A young pie fiend found in the pantry would never mention the +word pie but make great ado over the "fact" that his ball has rolled under +the cupboard. + +And likewise it is very often the part of a dream which a patient has not +told which holds the key to the enigma of the patient's mental +disturbance. + +One of my hypnagogic visions which I have already mentioned, simple as it +is, reveals my entire attitude, not only to sleep, but to life in general. + +I do not feel overwhelmed by sleep. I give myself up to sleep as +voluntarily as I wade into the sea or plunge into a swimming pool. Sleep +will refresh me as a swim would. When the proper depth is reached I swim +out, conscious of my ability and experiencing no fear. + +I use sleep as a means to exercise my mental activities as I enjoy the +muscular exertion necessary for swimming. + +Finally there is no one in the picture but myself. I am the central figure +of the dream. + +To go into more details, I may confide to the reader that I have never +enjoyed any form of sport, indoor or outdoors in which I do not play an +important, if not the leading part, or which prevents me from indulging my +own whims. Witnessing some one else's athletic performances bores me to +extinction and games such as cards, checkers or golf which are surrounded +with iron clad regulations appear to me not as a relaxation but as a +useless form of hard work. + +Readers may think that these self-revelations are prompted by egotism, but +an analyst should analyse himself as ruthlessly as he analyses others and +egotism happens to be the dominant feature of my attitude to life. + +The following dream draws a remarkable picture of uncertainty, indecision +and gloom: + +DREAM. "I am standing at the foot of marble stairs. I expect some danger +from the left where a person clothed in authority, with tyrannical +appearance, is approaching. I ask a female figure standing at the top of +the steps, and who seems to be some acquaintance, relative, mother or +sister, for help. I try to run up the steps but cannot. The figure extends +me a helping hand but that hand is so weak, lifeless, that I feel +helpless. I wake up in deep anxiety." + +ATTITUDE. We have in this case a "flight to the mother" coupled with fear +of the powerful father. The patient had always suffered from some fear, +fear of examinations as a school child, fear of competition in all life +matters, fear of marriage, fear of decisions. He lived with his mother and +sister and had an affair with a woman considerably older than himself whom +he called "mother" and who called him her "boy." + +We shall now see a dreamer wrestling with a sentimental problem, seeking a +solution for it and refusing to accept the solution suggested by an +outsider. + +DREAM. "I was in a car with Albert, sitting in my usual seat but the +steering gear had been moved so that I could steer from my seat. I was +very inexperienced and felt anxiety. I was going down a steep city street +and at the bottom, saw a house before which I wished to park; there were +red lanterns and signs, however, which prevented me from stopping there. +I went on and Albert disappeared, then I was in the open country climbing +a hill and a man (A.T.) stood there and I asked him which way to go. The +machinery bothered me, I didn't know what button to push but trusted my +intuition and went all right. Finally I reached a desert stretch where +there was nothing and in great anxiety awoke." + +ATTITUDE. The subject in love with a married man, had long hoped that he +would secure a divorce and marry her. She often went motoring with him. +Their affair was not satisfactory, however, and she had often considered +the possibility of a separation. + +The situation is handled in the dream as follows. She has had her way and +is running the car from her usual seat (he has come to her point of view) +but she has misgivings about the experiment (unconsciously, she is not +very keen any more to marry him); she tries to park in front of a house +(their future home); red lanterns (danger signs, obstacles, law, custom) +prevent her from doing so. She then starts out without him and asks her +analyst for advice. He encourages her to go on her way but she reaches a +deserted place and feels so forlorn, so hungry for human company that she +escapes from the nightmare through awaking. + +Even when no change is observable in a patient's condition in the course +of an analysis, constant attention to his dreams will enable the analyst +to notice unconscious changes which very soon afterward translate +themselves into a conscious modification of attitude. + +The following dreams illustrate that point: + +At the beginning of the analysis a patient, following in his dreams as +well as in his neurosis, the line of least effort, dreamt he had solved a +mechanical problem by means of a very simple apparatus consisting in a +rocking chair, two thumb tacks and an old rubber coat. Later when he +resumed closer contact with life, the machinery of his dreams became real +machinery and he continued in his sleeping thoughts the calculations which +had occupied him during the day and which to him were a constant source of +pleasure. + +A patient whose ambition was to become a singer but whose husband was +decidedly hostile to her plans, first brought me the following dream in +which she frankly relied on me for advice: + +"I am on the stage, singing. I forget my part. A foreign looking conductor +prompts me. In the wings, a man is looking at me, weeping. He falls in a +faint. I rush to him. He looks like my husband. A foreign looking doctor +picks him up and says to me: 'He will sleep now, after which he will feel +better.' I go back to the stage and sing beautifully." + +Later, having acquired more self-confidence she visualized the situation +as follows: + +"I see a man leading a Jersey cow on a rope. The cow is trying to get +under the fence but cannot. Then the cow is changed into a yellow bird +which flies away, perches on top of a barn and sings joyfully." + +In the first dream, I am, of course the conductor and the doctor. In the +second dream, the cow is an allusion to the patient's tendency to gain +weight. The song-bird is a very obvious symbol. + +A series of dreams reported by a stammering patient not only presented the +Freudian feature of wish-fulfilment but indicated clearly the patient's +changing attitude and his growing self-confidence, which finally +culminated in his complete cure. + +One of the first dreams he brought me at the beginning of the treatment +read as follows: + +"A congressman called Max Sternberg, who looks like me, is on the +platform, making a speech. A gang of little Irish boys in the rear starts +a disturbance. The audience, unable to hear the speaker, leaves the hall." + +On numberless occasions, small boys prevented him in his dreams from +accomplishing his object, and in particular, disturbed him when he was +speaking. Later the small boys became less and less aggressive. On one +occasion he lead a group of them through a museum and they listened to his +explanations without interrupting him. + +One night he had the following dream. + +"I am near Grand Central and thousands of children are lined on both sides +of the avenue to welcome a school principal who is landing from the train. +He arrives and they all cheer wildly and I have a feeling that I am that +school principal." + +Little boys never disturbed the dreamer after that. He had conquered his +regressive tendencies and his speech was improving. + +His self-confidence grew to such a point that he had the following dream: + +"I was in a room with John and Lionel Barrymore and I rehearsed them for a +Shakespearian play. Lionel forgot his part and stopped. I prompted him and +declaimed a few lines myself very eloquently. This was accompanied by the +thought: Very egotistical-good." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII: RECURRENT DREAMS + + +Whenever one and the same motive, with perhaps slight variations, recurs +frequently in dreams we may assume that it is the leading motive of the +dreamer's waking life. Whenever a person plays a dominant part in our +dreaming, we can rest assured that that person dominates and directs our +behaviour directly or indirectly. + +A man of forty-five, suffering from dizziness, was sent to me by his +family physician after numberless tests had failed to attribute his +illness to a "physical" cause. The patient had been troubled for two years +with vertigo, which he insisted on attributing to arteriosclerosis +(against the advice of several physicians). His legs had become very weak +and unsteady. He had developed a deep sense of worthlessness and was +haunted by suicidal ideas. + +My query as to his most frequent dream elicited the answer: + +"I dream very frequently of my father." + +His father had died two years before, from arteriosclerosis, and his main +complaint had been dizziness, weakness of the legs and depression. To +any one but the patient, the psychological connection between his illness +and his father's illness would have been obvious. He, too, saw some +connection between the two, only he placed upon that fact a more sinister +construction. The heredity bogey was terrifying him. His father had +bequeathed his illness to him, and he was to die as his father had died. + +It came out in the course of the analysis that he had been from infancy +his father's constant companion, working for him till he was over forty +years of age. Although he had always been fond of women, he had never +thought of marrying until his father died. After reciting the usual +arguments of the average bachelor directed against matrimony, he confessed +that he had never had the courage to bring to his home any young woman he +liked and who might have become his wife. Fear of his father's sarcastic +remarks set to nought any plans he might have made for a home of his own. + +After his father's death, he went half-heartedly into various business +ventures of which his father would have disapproved and he naturally lost +his investment. Every time he met with a reverse, he would be tortured by +remorse. "This is my father's money which I have been squandering." "My +father would be furious if he knew what I have done." + +He would then dream that his father stalked past him, cold, indifferent, +stern, and he "knew" his father had "come back" to show him his +resentment. + +The superficial symptoms of the patient's trouble were easily removed when +he acquired enough insight to realize that he had been imitating all of +his father's attitudes and repressing his own ego. + +Physical exercise soon restored to his legs the steadiness which they had +lost while the patient, imitating his father's helplessness, would sit in +his father's chair day after day, never taking a walk. A more critical +attitude of mind toward the father whom he worshipped, removed gradually +the sense of worthlessness which had almost lead him to suicide. + +Suicide to him was the road that led back to his father, upon whom he +wished to shift his responsibilities, and for whom he wished to work (as a +younger man), etc. + +The case was much more complicated but the few details of it which I have +presented are sufficient to show the close connection which existed +between the patient's most frequent dream and his imaginary neurotic goal. + +A homosexual patient always dreamt of her stepmother whom her father +married when she, the patient, was only twelve years of age. That marriage +was the culmination of a complicated family tragedy, double divorce, +unsavoury publicity, bitterness and hostility, puritanical gossip about +sex, passion, etc., which made on the child an indelible impression. + +She felt obscurely then that relations between sexes were something +unutterably filthy and while she liked a few boys in her flapper days, she +could not master a feeling of disgust whenever their attitude reminded her +of the "nasty" things which had wrecked her family. + +On the other hand, the pretty young woman whom her father introduced into +his home, personified in her thoughts sexual attraction in its most +irresistible form, a symbol of sin and bliss. To this day she has love +affair after love affair with women, every affair followed by a "nervous +breakdown" in which she repents her immorality and experiences terrible +remorse. At every stay in a sanitarium, however, dreams of her stepmother, +representing veiled and symbolized homosexual situations, obsess her +night after night. In one of those dreams she took the place of her father +and married the young woman, after which the hostility of the family, +manifesting itself in various forms, transformed the pleasant fancy into a +painful anxiety dream. + +Another patient, tyrannized over by an aunt who had brought her up, would, +whenever an emergency arose and she had to take a decision, dream of the +severe, forbidding aunt and feel so depressed the next day that she could +not accomplish anything and thus postponed the solution of her +difficulties. + +In certain cases, a recurring dream may bear a strange likeness to a +splitting of the personality such as we observed in cases of dual +personalities. + +The famous Rosegger dream, analysed by Freud and Maeder, should be +reanalysed in the light of the statements made in the previous chapters. +Rosegger went through a hard mental struggle from which he emerged +victorious, but the recurring dream he relates in his book "Waldheimat" +tells us much about the trials of a little tailor who managed to make a +place for himself in the artistic world but for a long while felt out of +place in his new environment. + +"I usually enjoy a sound sleep," Rosegger writes, "but many a night I have +no rest. I lead side by side with my life as student and littérateur, the +shadow life of a tailor's apprentice. This I have dragged with me through +long years, like a ghost, without being able to get rid of it.... Whenever +I dreamed, I was the tailor's apprentice, ... working without compensation +in my master's workshop.... I felt I did not belong there any more ... and +regretted the loss of time in which I could have employed myself more +usefully.... How happy I was to wake up after such tedious hours! I +resolved that if this insistent dream should come again, I would throw it +off and shout: 'This is only a make believe. I am in bed and wish to +sleep.' Yet the next time I was again in the tailor's workshop. One night, +at last, the master said to me: 'You have no talent for tailoring. You can +go, you are dismissed.' I was so frightened by this that I awoke." + +Freud compares this dream with a similar dream which pestered him for +years and in which he saw himself as a young physician, working in a +laboratory, making analyses and unable as yet to earn a regular living. +This is his interpretation of it: + +"I had as yet no standing and did not know how to make ends meet; but just +then it was clear to me that I might have the choice of several women whom +I could have married. I was young again in the dream and she was young +too, the wife who had shared with me all those years of hardship. + +"This betrayed the unconscious dream agent as being one of the insistent +gnawing wishes of the aging man. The fight between vanity and +self-criticism, waged in other psychic layers, had decided the dream +content, but only the deeper rooted wish for youth had made it possible as +a dream. Often, awake, we say to ourselves: Everything is all right as it +is today and those were hard times, but it was fine at that time. You are +still young." + +Maeder, of Zurich, refuses to accept such a simple explanation and offers +a more complicated one, burdened, like many psychological interpretations +of the Swiss school, with ethical considerations. + +"By his own efforts," Maeder writes, "Rosegger had worked himself up to a +high position in life. This has made him proud and vain, two faults which +easily disturb mankind, for they cause a man to suffer in the presence of +superiors and place him in a parvenu position among the lowly.... Deep +down, there takes place, in the sensitive poet, a gradual elaboration, a +development of the moral personality.... The long series of tormenting +dreams shows us the development of the psychic process which ends in a +deep but effective humiliation of the dreamer.... His being sent away, +dismissed, symbolizes in my opinion, the overcoming of the pride and +vanity of the upstart." + +I agree with Freud on the wish for youth expressed by Rosegger's dream and +fulfilled by way of a regression. But neither Freud, bent on introducing a +sexual element into his interpretation, nor Maeder, overfond of +moralizing, seem to have realized the tremendous meaning of such a series +of dreams, culminating as they did in a changed attitude to life. + +I have shown in another book, "Psychoanalysis and Behavior," that in cases +of dual personalities, the second personality is always one that leads a +simpler, less arduous life, fraught with lesser responsibilities, than the +normal life led by the first personality. The Rev. Ansel Bourne, being +tired and needing rest, was transformed for several weeks into A. Brown, a +fruit dealer in a small town far away from his home. Miss Beauchamp, prim, +overconsciencious, repressed, became the irresponsible Sallie, devoid of +manners or taste. The Rev. Thomas Carson Hanna, overworked and a spiritual +disciplinarian, woke up from a fit of unconsciousness a newborn baby, +helpless and in-organized. + +Rosegger, rising from manual to intellectual labour, compelled to adapt +himself to the mannerisms of a different world, and to adopt a new set of +social habits and customs for which his bringing up in a proletarian home +had not prepared him, compelled also to ransack his brain constantly for +new ideas to express or for new forms in which to clothe old ideas, may +have at times regretted unconsciously the simpler life of a tailor, less +rich in egotistical satisfactions but more comfortable intellectually and +requiring infinitely less ingenuity. + +And some of the remarks which he appends to his dream, confirm my +suspicions. + +What does he say of his awakening? "I felt as if I had just newly +recovered this idylically sweet life of mine, peaceful, poetical, +spiritualized, in which so often I had realized human happiness to the +uttermost." + +Undoubtedly he had for a long while failed to enjoy it and unconsciously +planned to escape from it through a regression to his former estate. + +Several lines further down the page we find this statement which is, I +think, absolutely conclusive proof of what his mental attitude had been +and of the crisis he had lived through. + +"I no longer dream of my tailoring days _which in their way were so jolly +in their simplicity and without demands_." + +Rosegger's dream is one of those morbid manifestations which enable us to +follow a neurotic struggle going on within the organism, a struggle for +adaptation to life, a struggle of which the subject is consciously +ignorant, because he has burnt his bridges and has repressed the most +fleeting thought of a possible change. + +Rosegger must have smarted under the _demands_ of his new life, but it was +out of the question for him to do anything else. The conflict, however, +played itself off in his dreams, offering a solution of a regressive type. +When, years later, the tailor's adaptation to the life of a writer was +completed, his master dismissed him. The dream solution was no longer +needed. + +Recurring dreams often give us valuable indications of physical trouble +which should be investigated and remedied at once. Even in ancient times, +the relation between recurring dreams of physical disability and some +physical disability setting in at a later date had been noticed. In those +days, however, the interpretation of such dreams was that the vision was a +warning sent by the gods, or that the vision was responsible for the +subsequent trouble. We read for instance of a man who dreamt that he had a +stone leg. A few days later paralysis set in. + +In discussing dental dreams I have pointed out the importance of having +the denture examined for possible pus pockets. + +Dreams of animals gnawing at some organ may indicate a cancer developing +in that region. Dreams of exhaustion from climbing hills often denote +heart disease. + +H. Addington Bruce had for several months had the same dream: a cat was +clawing at his throat. Examination of the throat revealed a small growth +which required immediate surgical intervention. The cat never came back. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV: DAY DREAMS + + +We do not always need to sleep in order to escape _normally_ from reality. +Some of us manage to do it with their eyes open. + +Day dreams are not essentially different from night dreams and would not +be mentioned separately but for the fact that they at times verge on a +neurosis and that in certain cases they are not easily distinguished from +delusions and hallucinations. + +Whatever was said of night dreams in the preceding chapters holds true of +day dreams. There are pleasant day dreams, unpleasant day dreams and even +day "nightmares" or anxiety day dreams. + +Like the sleep walker, the day dreamer manages at times to take just +enough notice of reality to direct himself through his house or along the +streets, while his mind is elaborating stories of varying complication. + +A day dreamer who consulted me during the war would imagine himself, while +walking along the streets, enlisting, taking a tearful farewell from his +relatives and friends and accomplishing deeds of valour which made him +famous; after which he would be so affected by his greatness that tears +would roll down his cheeks. Or the dream would end tragically and he would +die and then again a cascade of tears would be let loose at the thought of +all the grief his demise would cause. The result was that day after day he +would suddenly "wake up" in some public place, his face wet with tears, +annoyed and embarrassed by the attention which his appearance would +attract. + +Those day dreams constituted in spite of their sad cast a fulfilment of +his egotistical cravings. Even death was not too high a price to pay for +the importance he acquired in his dream, a psychological fancy which is +often found at the bottom of some sensational forms of suicide. + +The anxiety day dream is the form of compensation sought by many +neurotics, weak in body and frequently taken advantage of by more vigorous +and ruthless persons. + +It also plays at times the same part as masochistic nightmares, filling as +it does, the body with glycogen and a sense of power. + +I have heard patients suffering from a sense of real or imaginary +inferiority tell me of their obsessive anger finding relief in scenes +which they made, while walking along the streets or when sleepless of +nights, to some absent person whom they held responsible for their +troubles. + +They would then rehearse some annoying or humiliating incident provoked by +the offensive person and let loose a torrent of abuse leading unavoidably +to a fight in which they would beat, scratch or murder their enemy. + +The sound of their own voice or the remarks of passers by would generally +wake them up at the climax; their hearts then would beat wildly, they +would be out of breath, if not bathed in perspiration, but they would +experience withal a certain amount of satisfaction from the victory they +had won and they would feel full of what a patient of mine termed "almost +murderous energy." + +This form of "abreaction," when it does not assume the form of a constant +indulgence taking the place of positive action, is rather desirable. The +psychoanalytic treatment consists, in part at least, in the production of +day dreams based on memories which free in the patient a certain amount of +repressed energy. Thus a great deal of unrelated and unconscious material +is made conscious and related. Day dreams, without any definite direction +and unchecked, are likely, however, to be very dangerous and to exert a +paralysing influence on the dreamer. + +The concentration and meditation recommended by some Hindoo philosophers +can accomplish valuable results if the subject has a clear, analytical +mind and knows how to correlate the scraps of thoughts which are thus +allowed to rise to consciousness. + +For childish people, which are easily caught in the meshes of their +fancies and let their imagination run away with them, that indulgence is +deadly and it has led millions of Orientals into a nirvana-like idleness +and weakness, destructive of energy and life, a negative escape from +reality. + +This is one of the reasons why, in many forms of neurosis, a rest cure is +the most dangerous form of treatment. The neurotic's attention is +generally directed away from reality. His energy is too often deflected +toward fictitious goals located outside of the real world. The neurotic +has to be brought back into contact with life and human beings; he has to +be trained to accept them _as they are_ and to enjoy them _for what they +are_, instead of imagining _what they might be_. The idleness and +seclusion of the rest cure may negative all efforts in that direction. + +The rest cure from which day dreams cannot be excluded, is simply an +abnormal flight from reality sanctioned and abetted by a physician +ignorant of psychology. + +The day dreams which produce happiness, which promote creation, scientific +or artistic, and which lead the individual into the stream of life, are +sound and healthy dreams. Those which only lead to more dreaming and away +from life, are neurotic phenomena, devoid of any redeeming grace. + + + + +CHAPTER XV: NEUROSIS AND DREAMS + + +Not infrequently neuroses and psychoses are ushered in by a dream and +their termination is announced by a dream. + +This should not be understood to mean that the dream either "causes" the +neurosis or "cures" it. That mistake has often been made by psychologists +of the old school. Taine, among others, cites the case of a policeman who +once attended a capital execution. + +This spectacle made such an impression on him that he often dreamt of his +own execution and finally committed suicide. + +It would be absurd to believe that the sight of the execution "put the +idea of suicide into his head." He undoubtedly had been consciously or +unconsciously revolving death thoughts in his mind. + +The sight of the execution made those ideas more concrete and more +obsessive. The recurrence of a death dream simply showed that the +obsession was gradually overpowering his personality and seeking +realization. The dream work, endeavouring to solve the problem of how to +end his life, offered an easy solution: he did not have to commit suicide; +he was being put to death. Finally the death wishes overthrew his +personality and he killed himself. + +An epileptic was tortured every night by a dream in which a group of boys +playing Wild West (he personifying the Indian) were pursuing him, throwing +sticks and stones at him and finally cornering him. At the very minute +where they were laying hands on him, he would experience a "dying" feeling +and wake up in great discomfort. One night he turned round to face the +gang which dwindled down to one small urchin whom he spanked. That night +he slept soundly and the next day his fears of having a new fit +disappeared. Neither that dream nor his fits have returned. It was not the +dream that gave him fits, nor was it the last dream which cured him. The +obsessive dreams were wish-fulfilment dreams, showing him how to dodge +life's duties through his sickness which was a convenient, though painful, +unconscious excuse and how to solve his life problems by getting out of +reality. + +The last dream revealed a change in his mental attitude. He was not to +seek any longer a neurotic escape from reality but face reality and fight +his own battles. + +A patient suffering from delusions had the following dream: + +"A woman appeared to me and told me that it was all a dream and that all +my troubles would soon end." + +Associations to that dream showed that the woman who appeared to my +patient was a midwife who had helped her in a confinement some thirty +years before (rebirth symbolism). At that time she almost died from +puerperal fever and was also "saved" by a dream in which her grandparents +appeared to her and told her that she would recover. + +Her dreams, in which she placed in the mouth of other people the +expression of her own wish for health, corresponded well in their +mechanism with her delusions in which she heard people berating her for +her imaginary sins. + +At the time of the dreams, her delusions had lost their terrifying +character and were only a mild annoyance to her. She had acquired enough +insight to doubt their reality and to refer them to her unconscious +thoughts. + +The woman who imagines that in every voice she hears she can distinguish +the voice of the man she unconsciously loves builds up a "story" like the +dreamer who, perceiving coldness in her feet at night, saw herself falling +into a lake. + +The technique is exactly the same in both cases. + +Actual sensations are transformed into delusions closely associated with +the dreamer's or the neurotic's complexes. + +People subject to hallucinations project outside of their body symbolic +figures representing wishes they have endeavoured to repress and which +they refuse to recognize as a part of their personality. + +They hear voices which say certain things they are trying not to think of, +for they consider such thoughts as obscene, criminal or otherwise +unjustifiable. + +Dreamers likewise represent their disabilities as something entirely +separate from their bodies and their personality. + +The stammering patient dreaming that he was delivering a very eloquent +speech but was interrupted by howling hoodlums, repressed out of +consciousness the idea of his speech disturbance and gratified his ego by +saying: "But for those hoodlums I could speak very well." + +Trumbull Ladd suffering from inflammation of the eyelids dreamt that he +was trying to decipher a book in microscopic type: An attempt at shifting +upon the book the responsibility for his difficulties in reading. The +dream said: "There is nothing wrong with your eyes, but the type is too +small." + +A young woman struggling with an unjustifiable attachment for a married +man told me the following dream: + +"I was surrounded by little devils carrying pitchforks. I was afraid of +them at first, but I finally grabbed them all in a bunch and dropped them +into the fireplace. A pit opened under them and closed again and I felt +free." + +Her psychology was the same psychology which in the Middle Ages caused +religious people to invent the devil. Her desires which she refused to +recognize as hers were little devils endeavouring to tempt her. We deal +more easily with a stranger than with ourselves and "the devil tempted me" +sounds more forgivable than "I did what I had always wanted to do." + +What makes it difficult for neurotics at times to tell the difference +between their dreams and reality is that the emotions felt in dreams are +accompanied by the same inner secretions as when felt in the waking life. +A fear dream releases adrenin and a vivid sexual dream is followed by a +pollution. The bodily sensations following certain dreams are evidential +facts which some neurotics do not know how to controvert. + +The hallucinations of _delirium tremens_ patients which are generally +accompanied by anxiety, illustrate the fact that we can be terrified and +tortured by a dream which is a symbolized fulfilment of our conscious or +unconscious wishes. + +It is admitted by all but the very ignorant that immoderate drinking is +not induced by a taste for drink but by a desire to escape reality, in the +majority of cases, to drown the consciousness of financial or sexual +difficulties. + +The most common hallucinations of drunkards are those of snakes and lice. +Snakes are almost without exception symbolical of the male sex. To the +majority of neurotics, lice are symbolical of money and American slang +recognizes that association in the expression _lousy with money_. + +The "DT" patient has his wishes fulfilled. He is covered with vermin and +snakes crawl about his bed. He has all the symbolical wealth and the +symbolical potency or homosexual love he could wish for. But curiously +enough he does not understand those symbols and is terrified by the +manifest content of his morbid dream. + +The story of Nebuchadnezzar in the book of Daniel is a fine illustration +of the relation between dreams and insanity. + +The king began to lose his sleep which was disturbed by nightmares. In the +morning, however, the memory of those nightmares seemed to be entirely +gone. Daniel contrived to reconstruct a forgotten anxiety dream in which +the king saw a gigantic figure with head of gold, breast and arms of +silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron and feet of iron and clay +and which toppled down when struck by a stone. + +Here we have a morbid attitude to reality, the king visualizing his +position (which unconsciously appeared to him precarious), through that +unstable figure, and also expressing a neurotic wish to be delivered from +his anxiety through the final catastrophe. + +Later the king had another dream visualizing his fears and death wishes +through a different image: A mighty tree grew till its head reached the +heavens. Then an angel cried: "Hew down the tree, leave the stump and +roots in the earth, in the tender grass of the field; let it be wet with +the dew and let his portion be with the beasts." + +Fear of defeat and a neurotic desire to escape reality via a regression to +the animal level are clearly indicated in this dream and in Daniel's +interpretation of it. + +Very soon after, auditory hallucinations began to appear. "A voice fell +from heaven," speaking out the unconscious wishes which the king craved to +gratify. + +In a siege of _dementia praecox_, Nebuchadnezzar ate grass like oxen and +his body was wet with the dew from heaven; his hair grew like eagle's +feathers and his nails like birds' claws. + +After a period during which he, like all cases of changed personality, led +an easier, simpler, more primitive life, without any responsibilities, +Nebuchadnezzar recovered and related thus his return to reality: + +"My reason returned unto me; for the glory of my kingdom, mine honour and +brightness returned unto me; and my counsellors and lords sought unto me; +I was established in my kingdom and excellent majesty was added unto me." + +In the meantime he had become reconciled with reality and had given up his +paranoid attempts at being the mightiest factor in the world. + +By accepting as a possibility the existence of a mightier power, he +protected himself against the ignominy of a possible defeat. Against an +omnipotent God, even he could not prevail. + +Freud writes: "The overestimation of one's mental capacity, which appears +absurd to sober judgment, is found alike in insanity and in dreams, and +the rapid course of ideas in the dream corresponds to the flight of ideas +in the psychosis. Both are devoid of any measure of time. + +"The dissociation of personality in the dream, which, for instance, +distributes one's own knowledge between two persons, one of whom, the +strange one, corrects in the dream one's own ego, fully corresponds to the +well-known splitting of the personality in hallucinatory paranoia; the +dreamer, too, hears his own thoughts expressed by strange voices. + +"Even the constant delusions find their analogy in the stereotyped +recurring pathological dreams. + +"After recovering from a delirium, patients not infrequently declare that +the disease appeared to them like an uncomfortable dream; indeed, they +inform us that occasionally, even during the course of their sickness, +they have felt that they were only dreaming, just as it frequently happens +in the sleeping dreams." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI: SLEEPLESSNESS + + +I have given in the previous chapters many reasons why human beings are +compelled to seek at regular intervals an escape from reality which is +made possible by the unconsciousness of sleep. + +Why is it then, that many people suffer from insomnia? + +Many physical factors are generally mentioned as the direct causes of +sleep disturbances. None of them should be dismissed as unimportant; nor +should any one of them, however, be accepted as an exclusive and +all-sufficient explanation of sleeplessness. + +Coffee, tea and cocoa (the latter even in the shape of chocolate candy) +taken in large quantities, particularly before retiring, affect our +sympathetic or safety nerves. They make us, therefore, more sensitive to +slight sound, light, pressure, smell, etc., stimuli, which under ordinary +circumstances we would not notice consciously. + +In other words, they create imaginary "emergencies" which require the +usual preparation for fight or flight, that is, keen observation of our +environment, arterial tension, etc., all conditions which make sleep +impossible. + +Yet we cannot say that coffee, tea or cocoa, without some other +contributing cause would always bring about sleep disturbances. + +Bleuler writes: "I had been in the habit of drinking every night several +cups of very strong tea which never prevented me from sleeping. Since I +have had the influenza, things have been very different. I must be careful +not to partake of such stimulants before going to bed. But even then, +their effect depends on my mental condition. They affect me more at +certain times than they do at others. If I am the least bit excited their +effect is increased. When I am perfectly relaxed, I may not feel any bad +effects." + +A bedroom into whose windows flashes of light or waves of sound may pour, +is the not ideal place in which to seek escape from reality. Yet thousands +of people sleep soundly in Pullman berths or even in day coaches, +unmindful of the noise, light and bustle. + +We must keep in mind an observation made by Bleuler at the Zürich clinic: + +"When many people sleep in the same room, as in an insane asylum, some +complain that they cannot sleep because their neighbour is snoring. +Whoever tries to prevent the snoring or to move the snorer to another bed +will have an endless task. The trouble is with the patient who is +disturbed by snoring. It is not the noise itself but the attention he pays +to it which disturbs him. One can see in wards for agitated patients most +of the patients sleeping peacefully while some one disturbs the ward with +the most savage howling. + +"The trouble lies, not in a special sensitiveness of the nervous system, +but in the attitude we take toward a certain noise." + +Lack of exercise during the day will often cause us to toss and turn many +times in our bed after retiring. There seems to be in every living being a +craving for activity without any positive aim, activity which accomplishes +nothing besides using up unused energy or relieving certain inhibitions. + +Children and all young animals seem to be unable to remain motionless for +any length of time. In children and puppies, for example, the gleeful +shouts and barking which accompany that display of muscular activity show +unmistakably that it vouchsafes them a great amount of gratification. + +The satisfaction of the free activity urge which is one of the aspects of +the ego-power urge is probably submitted to a strong repression in men and +animals at a rather early age by the safety urge; frightened children and +animals stop playing and become at times paralysed by fear. + +On the other hand there are many sluggish individuals who lead an most +inactive life and yet sleep long hours without any interruption. + +Indigestion causes insomnia and so does hunger but it is also a fact that +many indiscreet eaters are made drowsy by their very indiscretion and +sleep soundly after a meal which would distress many other people. Also we +find in the sayings of many races statements to the effect that sleep +assuages hunger; the average prisoner sleeps in spite of the insufficient +meal served at night in the majority of jails. + +Constipation seems at times to bear the guilt for restless nights and so +do cathartics which, with some subjects, produce intestinal tension +several times during the night but whose effect is not noticeable in other +subjects until they wake up in the morning at the regular time. + +Toothache will keep some people awake while others will go to sleep in +order to forget their toothache. + +Examples of that sort could be cited ad infinitum. + +In case of sleeplessness, the first thing to do is to remove all the +possible physical causes which can be reached directly or with the help of +a physician. + +Thyroid irritation for instance may at times make one more sensitive to +even faint noises and a thorough medical examination should be undergone. + +The dentature should be examined with the help of X-ray photography in +order that pus pockets, impaction, and other defects, not observable with +the naked eye, may be revealed and remedied. + +The diet should be regulated so as to exclude indigestible foods while +assuring, especially at night, sufficient nourishment. + +All stimulants should be avoided. + +A walk before retiring is very beneficial in all cases, not because it +"tires" the subject, but because it absorbs the chemical products thrown +into the blood for emergencies which did not arise in the course of the +day. A long walk or any arduous exercise, on the other hand, might do more +harm than good if they brought about the phenomenon of the second wind. + +Any form of physical or mental exercise involving rivalry or competition +is to be avoided at night. The excitement caused by the "fear of losing" +would again fill the blood with "fight or flight" products. Heated +discussions, the witnessing of exciting films or plays, drives with a +daredevil chauffeur, etc., are not conducive to peaceful sleep. + +When all those means fail, many devices have been offered to insomnia +sufferers, such as prayer or counting sheep, reading, listening to some +monotonous stimulus like the buzzing of a faradic inductor, or of an +electric fan. + +A distinction must be made between stereotyped prayer (such as the Lord's +Prayer) and personal prayer rehearsing one's worries and asking for help. +The latter kind is not unlikely to revive all the day's problems and to +set the would-be-sleeper solving them over again at the very time when he +should forget them. + +The repetition of some passage which was memorized in childhood and which, +from long familiarity has become perfectly impersonal, may go a long way +toward creating the monotony, and hence the feeling of safety, without +which there cannot be any sleep. + +After following all the rules I have laid down a number of people will +still be unable to sleep. When the physico-psychic causes have been +removed without improving the condition of the subject, the +psychico-physical factors should then receive attention. + +As I said before, normal people can sleep under almost any conditions +because their vagotonic activities function regularly, while neurotics +cannot sleep well even under ideal conditions because their +sympathicotonic activities are constantly raising a signal danger and +imagining emergencies amidst the safest surroundings, mental and physical. + +The insomnia sufferer is suffering from some fear. That fear has to be +determined and uprooted by psychoanalysis. + +Some people cannot sleep because they have gone through a period of +sleeplessness and expect it to endure for ever. The men of the Emmanuel +movement often had the following experience: a subject would explain that +he could not sleep under any circumstances. The Emmanuel healer would ask +him to sit in a chair in which, he said, many people had fallen asleep, +and after a few minutes of soothing conversation or concentration, the +insomniac would doze off peacefully. In certain cases, such a cure may be +permanent; in other cases, when the results are obtained through +transference and suggestion, the help of the psychological adviser or +hypnotist may be too frequently required. + +Other subjects are prevented from sleeping by "worry." Telling a careworn +insomniac not to worry is as silly and useless as telling a lovelorn +person to stop being in love. + +Discussing a patient's worries with him, however, often accomplishes much +good, for it compels him to sift all his evidence, which may be +convincing to him but to no one else. The worried person who is beginning +to experience doubts as to the magnitude of his trouble, is like the +patient suffering from delusions who has lost faith in his delusions. + +The parasitic fears and cravings which attach themselves to some small +worry and, at times, magnify it out of proportion, may in such a way be +disintegrated and dissociated from the actual, justified fear. + +Giving the patient "good reasons" why he should not worry, is again a sort +of suggestion of the most futile and least durable type. + +Obsessive fear which is at the bottom of every worry is due to certain +complexes, at times apparently unrelated to the actual disturbance, and +which cannot be unearthed and uprooted except by a thoroughgoing +psychological analysis. + +This is especially true of certain cases of insomnia which the patient +reports as follows. "I fall asleep with difficulty and with a certain +apprehension. I sleep an hour or two during which I have awful dreams +which I cannot remember. After which I hardly dare to close my eyes +again." + +This is what I would call the fear of the unknown nightmare, and the +anxiety dreams responsible for it must be patiently reconstituted from +the scraps which invariably linger in the subject's memory, even when he +imagines that he cannot remember any dreams. The procedure will be +explained in the next chapter. + +While the psychoanalytic treatment is being applied, however, the patient +must be made aware of a fact which will comfort him to a certain extent. + +Patients often fear that if their sleeplessness is not relieved "at once" +they will "loose their minds." Thereupon they beg to be given some +narcotic. + +We must remember that the results of sleeplessness depend mostly upon the +attitude which we assume toward that condition. It may seem paradoxical to +state that its bad results are mainly due to our fear of them but it is +true nevertheless. + +We assume that we shall be exhausted by a sleepless night. We go to bed in +fear and trembling, wondering whether we will or will not sleep. That +anxiety is sufficient to liberate secretions which produce an unpleasant +muscular tension and a desire for activity. This keeps us awake until the +chemical contained in those secretions have been eliminated. In the +meantime, we develop a fit of anger which releases some more of the +identical chemicals. After which we are doomed to many hours of unrest and +agitation. + +During those restless hours we toss about angrily and exhaust ourselves +physically. About dawn, when sleepiness generally overtakes even the most +restless, we finally doze off and are awakened by our alarm clock or some +other familiar disturbance and once more relapse into anger at the waste +of our sleeping hours and the disability which we feel is sure to result +from it. + +We naturally feel worn out. If, on the other hand, we would resign +ourselves to our sleeplessness, realize that rest, even in the waking +state, will relieve our organism of all its "fatigue" and that, by +complete relaxation in the waking state, we can liberate almost as many of +our unconscious cravings as in the unconsciousness of sleep; if we were as +careful not to waste uselessly our inner secretions as we are not to touch +live wires, we would lie down as motionlessly as possible, and would +consign to the scrap heap all the absurd notions as to the dire results of +a sleepless night; we would then awaken in the morning as refreshed by the +two or three hours of sleep that would finally be vouchsafed us as by the +usual eight or ten. + +The amount of sleep one needs varies with every individual and increases +or decreases according to unconscious requirements. Hence, statements to +the effect that one needs eight or ten hours' sleep are absurd and +dangerous. + +Many people are worried over the fact that their sleep is irregular, that +is, that they sleep six hours one night and ten the next night and +possibly only four hours the third night. + +This is probably as it should be. Our requirements vary with varying +conditions. After eating salt fish one may need several glasses of water +to slake one's thirst, while one may not need to drink a drop of any +liquid after partaking of juicy fruit. + +One should also dismiss as an idle superstition the dictum according to +which sleep before midnight is more beneficial than sleep after midnight. +Hundreds of newspapermen, watchmen, policemen, printers, railroadmen, +etc., work nights and sleep in the day time and do not contribute more +heavily than other professions to the ranks of the mentally deranged. + +Older people, whose urges are at low ebb and do not require the +satisfaction vouchsafed by dream life should become reconciled to the fact +that they need few hours sleep; they should refrain from taking narcotics +and go to bed later than they do, so as not to "lay awake all night," +which generally means that after dozing an hour or two in an armchair and +retiring at ten they wake up normally about one or two in the morning. + +Sleep is important in health but even more so in mental disturbances. The +solution for the complicated problems of the neurotic's life depends upon +the wealth of facts contained in the unconscious rising freely to the +surface in dreams and relieving the uncertainty. The tragedy is that +except in cases of sleeping sickness, the neurotic who needs more sleep +than the healthy subject, generally gets much less. + +The neurotic should sleep preferably at night and avoid day sleep. This +for two reasons. He should keep in touch with reality when reality is +active and obvious, as during the day. With the falling of the shadows, +reality acquires a tinge of indefiniteness which lends itself to many +misinterpretations and to fancies of the morbid type. + +Sleeplessness in the ghostly hours of the night is a poison for the +neurotic, for everything at such times is exaggerated, distorted and the +slightest worry is transformed into a terrible danger. Many children could +be spared fits of "night terrors" if they were not forced to go to bed +very early, after which they are likely to wake up in the middle of the +night, disoriented and fearful. + +It has been said that insomnia was the cause of insanity and experiments +such as those made at the University of Iowa show that men kept awake for +a prolonged period of time begin to have delusions and hallucinations +similar to those of dementia praecox. But it must be remembered that the +men who submitted to those experiments were not allowed to "_rest_." + +The contrary proposition, that is, that insomnia is induced by insanity is +more plausible psychologically. + +And indeed every psychiatrist has made the observation that some insane +people sleep very little, so little in fact that such protracted periods +of sleeplessness would kill the average normal person. That observation +has been confirmed by Bleuler, who as the head of the Zurich psychiatric +clinic and one of the most tireless psychological experimenters in the +world, is in a position to speak with authority. + +Neurotics sleep very little, and the more severe their case is, the less +they sleep. Return of normal sleep generally coincides with a cure and has +been by many credited with bringing about the cure. Hence the many "rest +cures" suggested for the mentally disturbed patient. + +The truth of the matter is that the absolutely insane person who lives all +his absurd dreams in his waking life no longer needs the unconsciousness +which the normal individual requires in order to escape from reality. The +insane man who knows he is a combination of a Don Juan, a millionaire and +a powerful ruler, need not dream of becoming all those characters. He has +attained his goal and it is only the continued conflicts with reality +which may reach his consciousness in his lucid moments which necessitate +the unconsciousness of a few minutes or hours of sleep in which reality no +longer intrudes into his absurd world. + +Since insomniacs can rest without sleep and insomnia does not lead to +insanity, there is no reason why narcotics should be administered. There +is a very good reason on the other hand why they should never be +administered except in case some harrowing pain has to be relieved and +shock avoided. + +For one thing, their effect is problematic and depends also to a great +extent from the subject's mental condition. + +Kraepelin noticed that large doses of alcohol failed to produce the usual +muscular lameness in subjects who were agitated. Bleuler makes the +interesting suggestion that our central nervous system only "accepts" +narcotics when they are "wanted" and keeps drugs, carried about in the +blood stream, from being assimilated by the organism when the organism is +not "willing" to submit to their influence. + +But the most cogent reason why narcotics should never be resorted to in +"nervous" sleeplessness is that they do not relax the organism but +paralyse it by killing it partly. If they only dulled consciousness and +freed the unconscious, they would accomplish some good but we do not know +of any agent besides sleep, which accomplishes that successfully. + +Narcotics partly kill both consciousness and unconscious. While their +effect lasts, the very phenomenon which makes the neurotic a neurotic is +exaggerated. In the neurotic's waking state, unconscious complexes manage +to free themselves, somewhat indirectly. In the stupor of drugged sleep, +the repression is complete. Hence the horrible feeling which is often +experienced when awakening from drug-induced sleep. Normal sleep is +brother to life, but drug induced sleep is indeed akin to death. + +Neither can hypnotic suggestion be recommended as a cure for +sleeplessness, except of course, in emergencies. + +About the end of the nineteenth century, a Swedish physician, +Wetterstrand, inaugurated a method of treatment which was founded on a +just estimate of the value of sleep, although Wetterstrand himself could +not at the time have understood the psychology of it. + +He had in Upsala a "house of sleep" furnished with innumerable divans and +couches on which his patients were allowed to rest for hours in hypnotic +sleep. + +Of course this procedure had two glaring defects: hypnotism is a neurotic +phenomenon which should not be applied to the treatment of a neurosis and, +secondly, sleep in the daytime is generally enjoyed at the expense of the +night's sleep. + +At the same time, the sleep which patients enjoyed in Wetterstrand's +"Grotto of Sleep," as it was called at the time, must have been of a +somewhat curative kind; for the house was as silent as a grave. Thick +carpets deadened all sounds and all the lights were dimmed. No stimuli +were allowed to produce in the sleepers any fear reactions. + +What Wetterstrand really supplied to his patients was an ideal bedroom and +an opportunity for an absolutely uninterrupted sleep of several hours. We +do not know, however, how many of them were robbed of the effect of such +an ideal environment by the anxiety dreams which the quietest bedroom +cannot exclude. + +The conclusion to be drawn from what has been said in the preceding +chapters is that the real mission of sleep is to free the unconscious, to +relieve the tension due to repressions and to give absolutely free play to +the organic activities which build up the individual. + +Hence the goal is sleep of sufficient duration, sleep undisturbed by +physical stimuli, sleep FULL OF DREAMS but FREE FROM NIGHTMARES. + +No more potent curative agent could be found than that kind of sleep, +whether the ills to be remedied are of a "mental" or of a "physical" +nature. Not until all the fear-creating complexes have been disintegrated +by psychoanalysis, however, can the insomniac hope to enjoy that perfect +form of "rest." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII: DREAM INTERPRETATION + + +Dream interpretation is not an idle pastime or a mysterious performance. +Carried out in accordance with certain scientific rules based on common +sense and not on mere theory, it has a positive value in health as well as +in sickness. + +A nightmare whose meaning has been interpreted rightly ceases to be a +nightmare. It disappears, or rather, is replaced by an obvious +wish-fulfilment dream of the same import, which does not disturb sleep. + +The same modification is observable in recurrent dreams which, while not +burdened with anxiety, may have puzzled us and created a certain +apprehension. + +Insight into our own dreams enables us to release more completely the +unconscious cravings which it is the mission of sleep to free from the +repressions of waking life. + +The technique of dream interpretation is unfortunately, like every detail +of the psychoanalytic technique, very slow and at times discouraging. The +layman trained by quack literature to expect quick results, is apt to +appear scornful when a conscientious analyst, asked to interpret offhand +an apparently simple dream, refuses to perform that task and confesses +that he does not know the meaning of it. + +When little Anna Freud dreamt that she was feasting on all sorts of +dainties, no elaborate technique was needed to ferret out the enigma of +such a vision. When Ferenczi's patient, however, saw herself strangling a +white dog, the wish-fulfilment formula, applied indiscriminately, would +have given poor results. + +_To the patient_, the white dog symbolized a snarling woman with a very +pale face. + +Dream interpretation must never be attempted without the dreamer's +assistance. + +Snakes are _almost always_ sexual symbols, but if on the day preceding the +dream the subject was frightened by a snake or killed one or played with +one, we should require a good deal of other evidence before we could +safely assert that a snake dream on that night indicated fear, desire or +repression of sexual cravings. + +A tooth pulling dream related by a subject who expects to go through the +ordeal of dental extraction should not be hastily admitted to be a +symbolical dream. + +Even apparently obvious dreams may assume an entirely different complexion +when we inquire into the associations which every detail of them conjures +up from the subject's unconscious. + +A year ago or so a Chicago woman sued her husband for divorce because he +had been, while talking in his sleep, saying endearing things to his +stenographer. That woman was both right and wrong. + +The fact that her husband dreamt of his stenographer was evidence that the +girl was "on his mind," consciously or unconsciously. But we could not, +without examining the husband's unconscious reactions decide to what +extent the stenographer herself, as a distinct personality, obsessed him. + +Every man is more or less of a fetichist, irresistibly attracted by +certain details of the feminine body, for ever seeking those +characteristics and appreciating them above all others wherever found. +When only one such characteristic and no other attracts a man, the man is +known as a perverse fetichist. + +When the various fetiches which attract a man are found in one woman, let +us say red hair, dark eyes and a slender build, we have the foundation for +a passionate and durable love. + +When only one of those characteristics is found in a woman, that +characteristic is bound to attract the man's attention regardless of the +interest or lack of interest the woman may present for him. A red haired +woman, while otherwise totally unattractive, might, to a red hair +fetichist, symbolize the beauty he seeks and intrude into his dream +pictures, _although she personally could not attract him sexually in his +waking state_. + +Every one has had the experience of embracing in dreams some person who in +the waking state would not inspire the dreamer with any desire. If we +analyse carefully the appearance of the "ghostly love" we will in every +case notice that he or she is endowed with a certain characteristic which +is one of the constituting elements of our "love image." + +The Chicago woman should have taken her troubles to an analyst, not to a +judge. + +I have dwelt at length on that example to show a few of the pitfalls which +threaten the careless interpreter of dreams. + +The second rule I would formulate is this: Do not try to interpret one +dream. Wait until you have collected a large number of dreams, let us say, +twenty or thirty of them. + +Then classify them according to their character as follows: + +Pleasant and unpleasant dreams. Healthy and morbid. Masochistic and +sadistic. Childish or adult. Regressive, static or progressive. Positive +or negative. Varied or recurrent. Personal or typical. Hypnogogic and +hypnapagogic visions, etc. + +Care must be taken then to note all the words and thoughts which appear +most frequently in many dreams and which are likely to refer to important +complexes. + +Whenever possible two versions of each dream should be studied. + +The subject should write down his dreams as soon as he wakes up, either in +the morning or right after an anxiety dream which may have disturbed him +in the course of the night. + +The version of almost any important dream which the subject tells the +analyst will be found quite at variance with the version written +immediately after awakening. + +Here is a dream reported orally to me by a patient. + +"I saw you through a restaurant window, having lunch with your wife." + +Here is the same dream as I found it in the patient notes: + +"You were to deliver a lecture in a park. There was a number of good +looking girls there. One especially attracted my attention. As there was +quite a little mud in the park she wore rubber boots. You were late in +appearing and I went to look for you. I saw you sitting at a table in a +restaurant with your wife, waving to some acquaintance on the side walk." + +The discrepancy between the two versions is quite amusing. + +After that preparatory work of classification and comparison, the actual +work of interpretation can begin. + +Hebbel once wrote: "If a man could make up his mind TO WRITE DOWN ALL HIS +DREAMS, WITHOUT ANY EXCEPTIONS OR RESERVATIONS, TRUTHFULLY AND WITHOUT +OMITTING ANY DETAILS, TOGETHER WITH A RUNNING COMMENTARY CONTAINING ALL +THE EXPLANATIONS OF HIS DREAMS WHICH HE COULD DERIVE FROM HIS LIFE +MEMORIES AND FROM HIS READING, he would make to mankind a present of +inestimable value. But as long as mankind is what it is, no one is likely +to do that." + +The technique of dream interpretation could not have been described more +accurately nor more aptly. + +The person whose dreams are to be analysed should relax completely, +stretched out on a couch in a quiet room, listening for a while to some +monotonous noise such as the buzzing of a fan or of an inductor, his mind +concentrated on the story of the dream. + +Then he should tell in a rambling way, without trying to edit the things +that rise to his consciousness, all the associations of ideas connected +with every word of the dream. While we can interpret our own dreams and +jot down our own ideas, the assistance of some sympathetic, discreet +person makes the process much simpler. Jotting down notes detracts one's +attention from the images rising to consciousness. + +The assistant, however, should confine himself to mentioning the next word +or the next part of the dream as soon as the subject seems to have +exhausted the associations brought forth by one part of it. + +The most surprising results are often obtained in that simple way. Facts +which the subject had entirely forgotten, connections he had never been +aware of, will suddenly jump into consciousness; the dream will gradually +assume a meaning and its interpretation may at times reach an unexpected +length. A dream of one line may suggest associations covering five or six +pages. + +It may happen that in spite of the subject's efforts to remember his +dreams and of devices such as being awakened in the course of the night, +etc., the only memories preserved of the night's visions will be scraps +such as "going somewhere," "talking to somebody," "something unpleasant," +etc. + +In such cases, the subject should be allowed to sink into what Boris Sidis +calls "hypnoidal sleep" by being made to listen to some continuous noise +in a partly darkened room, all the while thinking of the "dream scrap." + +"While in this hypnoidal state," Sidis writes, "the patient hovers between +the conscious and the subconscious, somewhat in the same way as in the +drowsy condition, one hovers between wakefulness and sleep. The patient +keeps on fluctuating from moment to moment, now falling more deeply into a +subconscious condition in which outlived experiences are easily aroused, +and again rising to the level of the waking state. Experiences long +submerged and forgotten rise to the full height of consciousness. They +come in bits, in chips, in fragments, which may gradually coalesce and +form a connected series of interrelated systems of experiences apparently +long dead and buried. The resurrected experiences then stand out clear and +distinct in the patient's mind. The recognition is fresh, vivid, and +instinct with life, as if the experiences had occurred the day before." + +Through this procedure, patients are often enabled to recollect forgotten +dreams and nightmares. + +Certain patients do not forget their dreams but refuse to report them. In +such cases the simplest procedure consists in asking the patient to make +up a dream while in the analyst's office, that is to put himself in the +hypnoidal state described above and to tell the images and thoughts that +come to his mind. Or if the analyst suspects the existence of a certain +complex, he may ask the patient to build up a dream on a topic so selected +that it will touch that complex. + +A question which audiences have asked me hundreds of times is: "Cannot the +patient make up something that will deceive you entirely and throw you on +the wrong trail?" + +My answer to such a question is emphatically negative. + +A study of the literary and artistic productions of all races has shown +that in every "story" and in every work of art, the writer or artist was +solely bringing to consciousness his own preoccupations, in a form which +may have deceived him but which does not deceive the psychologist slightly +familiar with the author's biography. + +Brill tells somewhere how his attention was first drawn to the value of +artificial dreams and of so called "fake dreams." + +In 1908, he was treating an out of town physician, suffering from severe +anxiety hysteria. The patient was very sceptical, did not co-operate with +Brill, never talked freely and pretended he never had dreams. One morning, +however, he came for his appointment bringing at last one dream. "He had +given birth to a child and felt severe labour pains. X., a gynecologist +who assisted him, was unusually rough and stuck the forceps into him more +like a butcher than a physician." + +It was a homosexual fancy. Asked who X. was, the patient said he was a +friend with whom he had had some unpleasantness. + +Then he interrupted the conversation, saying: "There is no use fooling you +any longer. What I told you was not a dream. I just made it up to show you +how ridiculous your dream theories are." + +Further examination, however, proved that the patient was homosexual and +that his anxiety states were due to the cessation of his perverse +relations with X. The lie he had made up was simply a distorted wish +closely connected with the cause of his neurosis. + +As Brill states very justly, "everything which necessitates lying must be +of importance to the individual concerned." + +Personally, I have found that, with certain patients, the artificial dream +method is productive of better results than the free association method. +With the docile patient who has much insight and a positive desire to rid +himself of his troubles, the association method reveals quickly the +darkest corners of the unconscious. The patient who, on the other hand, +constantly answers: "I cannot think of anything," and is always on his +guard, the association method wastes much valuable time and is very +discouraging to patient and analyst. + +It is not always advisable for the analyst to reveal to his subjects the +import of their dreams. It is especially when the meaning of their dreams +is frankly sexual that discretion and tact are necessary. In cases of a +severe repression of sexual cravings extending over many years, when, for +instance, one has to deal with a woman, no longer young and whose attitude +to life has been rather puritanical, a good deal of educational work has +to be undertaken before the subject can be enlightened. + +She must be gradually led to consider sex as a "natural" phenomenon before +she can be made to accept the sexual components revealed by her dreams as +a part of her personality. + +Repressed homosexualism is perhaps even harder to reveal to the subject. + +I have found my task infinitely simpler when the subject had done a good +deal of reading along psychoanalytic lines or had attended many lectures +on the subject. In fact it is my conviction that when psychoanalytic books +are read by a larger proportion of the population, thousands of "sex" +cases will disappear, together with the absurd fears based on ignorance +which are responsible for many a mental upset. + +Interpreting a subject's dreams is the best known means of probing and +sounding his unconscious, but in the majority of cases it only helps +indirectly in treating the case. When we deal with nightmares, however, +the results are more direct and more rapidly attained. A nightmare +interpreted rightly will never recur, or if it does, WILL NOT FRIGHTEN OR +AWAKEN THE SUBJECT. + +Insight will develop which, even in the sleeping state, will enable the +subject to recognize that his dream is only a dream and to sleep on +undisturbed. A patient who was often terrorized by a dream in which some +man stabbed him in the back, gradually came to recognize his unconscious +homosexual leanings and analysed the nightmare in his sleep when it +occurred again with excellent results. It did not frighten him and +gradually disappeared, being replaced by grosser dreams devoid of anxiety. + +A patient was bothered by dreams in which he was repelling onslaughts of +large beasts with a walking stick or an umbrella which invariably broke +and which he was always trying to tip with iron rods or tacks. + +He finally gained insight into his unconscious fear of impotence which was +dispelled by a visit at a specialist's office. + +Not only did that nightmare disappear but very soon after, his dreams +changed to visions of successful sex-gratification. + +Dream insight based upon the personality of the analyst should not be +considered as real insight. When a patient reports, "I dreamt that I was a +baby but remembered that Mr. Tridon would call that a regression dream and +I awoke," or, "I felt that Mr. Tridon would characterize the whole thing +as a masochistic performance and awoke," much work remains to be done. + +The dreamer must _know_ that his nightmare is a symbol and not merely know +that his analyst would call it a symbol. + +When the dreamer has acquired the technical skill which enables him, after +a little concentration and meditation, to interpret his own sleep visions, +he is no longer at the mercy of the annoyance called nightmare. When he +can see at a glance where the repression seems unbearable, he may devise +ways and means to satisfy his cravings more completely if they are +justifiable and lawful; if they are unjustifiable or socially taboo, he +may seek substitutes for them and, especially as I have explained in +another book, free them from the parasitic cravings which make them unduly +obsessive. + +He who can read the indications of his own dreams, has at his disposal an +instrument of great precision which indicates to him the slightest +fluctuations of his personality and, besides, points out various solutions +for the problems of adaptation which the normal, progressive human being +must solve every day of his life. + +Oneiromancy is the algebra which enables us to perform rapidly complicated +calculations in the mathematics of psychology. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +ABRAHAMSON, I.--Mental disturbances in lethargic encephalitis. _Journal of +Nervous and Mental Disease._ September 1920. + + A study of the sleeping sickness based mainly upon cases observed at + Mt. Sinai Hospital. + +ABRAHAM, K.--Dreams and Myths. _Nervous and Mental Disease Monograph +Series._ No. 28. + + A monograph proving that legends and myths are in reality the day + dreams of the human race. + +ADLER, A.--Traum and Traumdeutung. _Zentralblatt f. Ps. A. III_, p. 574. + + A short essay on dream interpretation from the point of view of the + ego urge. + +ASCHAFFENBURG, G.--Der Schlaf in Kindesalter und seine Störungen. +Bergmann, Wiesbaden. + + Observations on the disturbances of the sleep of children. + +BRUCE, H. A.--Sleep and Sleeplessness. Little Brown. + + A popular exposé of the problem of sleeplessness from a modern point + of view. + +CORIAT, I.--The Meaning of Dreams. Little Brown. + + A small book containing the analyses of many dreams according to the + Freudian technique. + +CORIAT, I.--The Nature of Sleep. _Journal of Abnormal Psycho._ VI. No. 5. + +CORIAT, I.--The Evolution of Sleep and Hypnosis. + + Ibidem, VII. No. 2. + +DELAGE, Y.--La nature des images hypnagogiques. _Bulletin de l' Inst. Gen. +Psycho._ 1903, p. 235. + +DU PREL, CARL.--Künstliche Träume. _Sphinx_, July 1889. + + A study of artificial dreams. + +FREUD, S.--The Interpretation of Dreams. Macmillan. + +FREUD, S.--Dream Psychology, with an introduction by André Tridon. McCann. + + The most important books on Dream Interpretation. + +FRÖMNER, E.--Das Problem des Schlafs. + + Bergmann, Wiesbaden. + +HENNING, H.--Der Traum ein assoziativer Kurzschluss. + + Bergmann, Wiesbaden. + +MAURY, A.--Le Sommeil et les Rêves. Paris 1878. + + The first attempt at a methodical study of dreams and at correlating + them to physical stimuli. + +MAEDER, A. E.--The Dream Problem. _Nervous and Mental Disease monograph +series._ No. 22. + + A presentation of the subject from the point of view of the Swiss + School. + +HALL, B.--The Psychology of sleep. Moffat Yard. + + A review of the various sleep theories from the academic point of + view. + +KAPLAN, L.--Ueber wiederkehrende Traumsymbole. _Zentrablatt f. Ps. A._ IV, +p. 284. + + An essay on dream symbolism. + +MANACÉINE, M. DE.--Sleep, its physiology, pathology, hygiene and +psychology. Scribner. + + The most complete study of sleep from every possible point of view, + placing the emphasis, however, on the physical aspects of sleep. + +SACHS, H.--Traumdeutung und Menschenkenntniss. _Jahrb. d. Ps. A._ III, p. +121. + +SCHROTTER, K.--Experimentelle Träume. _Zentralblatt f. Psy. A._ II, p. +638. + + A record of very interesting experiments in the production of + artificial dreams through hypnotism. + +SILBERER, H.--Der Traum Enke. Stuttgart. + + A very clear primer in dream study, epitomizing the latest hypotheses + in interpretation. + +SILBERER, H.--Ueber die Symbolbildung. _Jahrbuch d. Psy-A._ III, p. 661. + +SILBERER, H.--Zur Symbolbildung. _Jahrbuch d. Psy-A._ IV, p. 607. + +SILBERER, H.--Bericht über eine methode Hallucinationserscheinungen +herbeizurefen. _Jahrbuch d. Psy.-A._ I, p. 513. + +STEKEL, W.--Die Sprache des Traumes. Wiesbaden, 1911. + +STEKEL, W.--Die Traüme der Dichter. Wiesbaden, 1912. + +STEKEL, W.--Fortschritte in der Traumdeutung. _Zentralblatt f. Psy-A._ +III, pp. 154, 426. + +STEKEL, W.--Individuelle Traumsymbole. _Zentralblatt f. Psy-A._ IV, p. +289. + + Stekel is essentially a Freudian but his books contain hundreds of + illustrations and case histories, making his books more understandable + to laymen than Freud's writings. + + "Die Sprache des Traumes" is the most useful text book of Symbol + Study. + +TRIDON, A.--Psychoanalysis, Its History, Theory and Practice. Huebsch. + + See Chapter V: Symbols, the language of the dreams, and Chapter VI: + The dreams of the human race. + +TRIDON, A.--Psychoanalysis and Behaviour. Knopf. + + See part IV, chapter II: Self-knowledge through dream study. + +TRIDON, A.--Introduction to Freud's "Dream Psychology." McCann. + +VOLD, J. M.--Ueber den Traum. Leipzig 1910-1912. + + Void holds that every dream is caused by a physical stimulus. + +VASCHIDE, N.--Le Sommeil et les Rêves. Paris, 1911. + + A physical explanation of sleep and dreams. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Readers unfamiliar with my previous works might accuse me of placing +undue emphasis upon "mental" causes and ignoring the influence of bacilli, +toxins, etc., in disease. I refer them to the chapter: Mind and Body, an +indivisible unit, in my book, "Psychoanalysis and Behaviour." It is a +truism that in tuberculosis for instance the prognosis depends greatly +from the "mental" condition of the patient and on his will to live. We are +protected against disease germs by the various secretions of the mouth, +stomach, intestine, etc. Whenever a "mental" cause, such as fear, intense +sorrow, etc., translates itself into an action of the sympathetic system +which stops the flow of saliva and gastric juice and the intestinal +peristalsis, we can see how the organism is then predisposed to an +invasion of pathogenic bacteria. The depressed, the stupid and the +ignorant are the first victims in any epidemic, the depressed because +their protective vagotonism is too low, the stupid and the ignorant +because they are more frequently than the intelligent and well informed a +prey to fear. + +[2] The orthodox Freudian would of course interpret such a vision as a +symbol of an attempted regression to the fetal condition, return to the +mother's womb, etc. As a matter of fact, sleep is to a certain extent a +return to the period of the fetus' almost complete omnipotence of thought. +I have noticed, however, that I never dream of swimming except on days +when I have been prevented from indulging in my favourite sport at the +shore or in the swimming pool. + +This is to my mind a perfectly obvious dream needing no far fetched +interpretation, symbolical only in so far as it expresses my attitude to +sleep (See chapter on Attitudes reflected in dreams). + +[3] Dr. Percy Fridenberg has shown the exaggerated shock reactions felt by +the organism after the eye suffers an injury or is operated on, and +recalls Crile's saying that our activation patterns come from sight. + +[4] The duration of a dream is not as short as some of Maury's experiments +would lead us to believe. Some of the experimental dreams timed by +Schroetter lasted almost as long as it takes to relate them. + +[5] Insanity is simply a day dream from which we cannot awake at will. + +[6] All the dreams cited in this book are reported in the patient's own +words. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Psychoanalysis, by André Tridon + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44085 *** |